Putin's War With Ukraine: A Central European Perspective

Veronika Víchová is Deputy Director for Analysis and Head of the Kremlin Watch Program at the European Values Center for Security Policy. She graduated the Masaryk University in Brno. She co-authored a study on how Kremlin propaganda portrays European leaders which was published by The Atlantic Council and an Overview of countermeasures by the EU28 to the Kremlin´s influence operations. She compiles the Kremlin Watch Briefing, a weekly newsletter on disinformation and influence operations for more than 7.000 European experts, journalists and officials. She participated in the Transatlantic Fellowship Program in Washington DC organized by the World Affairs Journal, which she spent at the office of Senator Rob Portman. She has graduated from the New Security Leaders Program 2017.

Dr. Péter Krekó is a social psychologist and political scientist. He is the Director of Political Capital Institute, a Budapest-based think tank since 2011. He is an Associate Professor at the ELTE University. During 2016-2017 he worked as a Fulbright Visiting Professor in the United States at the Central Eurasian Studies Department of Indiana University. His main research interests are disinformation, sharp power political influence, and political tribalism.

Dr Jacek Kucharczyk is President of the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA), one of Poland’s leading thinktanks. In the 1980s Kucharczyk was active in independent student movement and clandestine publishing in Poland. He has been a co-founder and board member of a number of international NGOs, including Prague Civil Society Center, the European Partnership for Democracy (EPD) in Brussels and Policy Association for an Open Society PASOS in Prague. Dr Kucharczyk was also the chair and member of Advisory Board of Scholarship Programs at Open Society Foundations and earlier served as Advisory Board member of Think Tank Fund at Open Society Institute. In 2009-2015 he served as board member of the National School of Public Administration in Warsaw. He has authored and edited articles, reports, policy briefs and books on European integration, democratic governance, populism and migration policy. Dr Kucharczyk regularly comments on current domestic and European affairs and political developments for Polish and international media.