Richard Sakwa

Richard Sakwa is Professor Emeritus of Russian and European Politics at the University of Kent. He joined the university in 1987, became a professor in 1996, and served two separate terms as Head of the School of Politics and International Relations.

Sakwa studied history at the London School of Economics and completed his doctorate at the Centre for Russian and East European Studies at the University of Birmingham. During his doctoral research, he studied at Moscow State University on a British Council scholarship and later worked at the Mir Science and Technology Publishing House in Moscow. Before joining the University of Kent, he taught at the University of Essex and the University of California, Santa Cruz. He has also served as an honorary professor at Moscow State University and held research positions at Chatham House’s Russia and Eurasia Programme and the Higher School of Economics.

His work examines Russia’s political institutions, the transformation that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the evolution of the European security order through historical and comparative approaches. His academic output constitutes a substantial body of research on Russia and Eurasia, bringing together political history, comparative politics, and international relations.