Background

Sergei Medvedev was born on December 20, 1966, in Moscow, Moscow City, Soviet Union (now Russian Federation) to the family of Aleksandr Viktorovich Medvedev, a musicologist and publicist, for a long time was the head of the musical and literary department of the Bolshoi Theater and repeatedly headed the press center of the International Tchaikovsky Competition.

Education

Sergei Medvedev studied at School 27 (now 1232) in Moscow graduating in 1983. He received his Bachelor of Arts in International Journalism from Charles University in Prague in 1988 and from Moscow State University in 1989. He obtained a Master of Arts in International Affairs from Columbia University in 1990. Medvedev earned his Doctor of Philosophy in History of International Relations and Foreign Policy from the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences for his thesis on “European Politics of Pope John Paul II” in 1995. In 1991-1993 he had two personal audiences with the Pope.

Career

Sergei Medvedev is a professor at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, Russia. Previously, he worked at the Marshall Center for Security Studies in Germany, the Finnish Institute of International Affairs (Helsinki), the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (Ebenhausen), the Istituto Affari Internazionali (Rome) and the Institute of Europe (Moscow). Medvedev was involved in Permanent lecture and seminar courses (30 weeks a year) at Marshall Center, Germany in 1999-2005.

Medvedev has taught courses on Russian/Soviet and security studies throughout Europe and the United States and has published on his fields of scholarly interest, most notably on post-Soviet studies, European security, political geography, cultural anthropology, and semiotics.

Sergei Medvedev is also the host of several history and current affairs programs on TV and radio and a regular commentator in the print, broadcasting and online media. He is an author and presenter of intellectual talk shows on TV Kultura, TV Rain (Dozhd), Current time.tv, radio FINAM FM, Stolitsa FM, Radio Liberty since 2007. Since 2012 he is also a Columnist with such periodicals as Russian Forbes, SLON, and Republic.

Medvedev has authored a number of political science books about Russia. Overall he has around 70 academic publications in various countries.

Achievements

• Political science professor Sergei Medvedev is one of Russia’s most in-demand public intellectuals. His strong and outspeaking position earned him the respect of the political opposition community in Russia. His books are published not only in Russian but also in English and tend to receive a substantial number of positive reviews. He also achieved professional recognition as an educator and was named Best Teacher at Higher School of Economics in Moscow in 2011, 2012, and 2014.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Return of the Russian Leviathan

    (Russia’s relationship with its neighbours and with the We...)

    2019
  • Mapping European Security After Kosovo

    (This book provides new and stimulating perspectives on ho...)

    2002
  • Constructing Identities in Europe: German and Russian Perspectives (International Politics and Security)

    (Russia and the European Union are neighbors. Historically...)

    2012
  • Park Krymskogo perioda 2017
  • Rethinking the National Interest: Putin's Turn in Russian Foreign Policy 2001
  • Russia and the West at the Millennium 1992
  • Russia's Futures - Implications for the EU, the North and the Baltic Region 2000

• publication

  • The European Union in the G8: Promoting Consensus and Concerted Actions for Global Public Goods

    (An eminent international line up of experts in law, polit...)

    2016

Religion

Medvedev is Agnostic. He was baptized in the Russian Orthodox church in the 1990s. But according to his own words, his internal evolution led his religious views "from Dostoevsky to Dawkins and Russell, to rationalism, agnosticism, postmodernism and radical irony." He also became disillusioned and frustrated with the role of the church in Russia.

Politics

Medvedev is known as an opponent of the current policy of the Russian Federation government. He considers Russia to be a weakening oil autocracy. His political and environmental remarks earned him notoriety among a number of Kremlin representatives. Putin called him a “moron” after he claimed that the Arctic territory should be under international protection.

Views

Sergei Medvedev, a longtime lover, and explorer of the Arctic promotes the idea of international control over the Arctic like it is in the Antarctic. Medvedev believes Russia has a special responsibility when it comes to protecting the Arctic as it started the race by planting the Russian flag on the North Pole. After that Medvedev is presented as an enemy of the state by a number of federal news agencies.

Quotations: "My message is that the greater Arctic should belong to the entire humanity, which in effect should mean a ban on oil drilling and any economic activity and a ban on military actions and movements, on nuclear tests, on the deployment of military bases. It is not for nothing that [the] Greenpeace call “Save the Arctic” was supported by 5 million people around the world including many Russians. The Arctic should become like the Antarctic: open for scientific research, tourism and any non-commercial expeditions. In other words, I am for turning the Arctic into a huge biospheric preserve. In the long-term perspective, this is much more beneficial if you look at it through the green economy eye, treating nature not as a resource but as investment capital."

"Mind you, an oil spill in the Arctic is far more dangerous [than one in the Gulf of Mexico], given its potential environmental implications."

"Putin is not just a leader as he is the embodiment of the security and power clan which presides over the redistribution of property and resources. Putin stands alone on the very top of the gigantic pyramid he built, but at the same time he is [a] hostage of his creation."

"The country's economy is tremendously inefficient. It is totally dependent on raw materials, the politicians are unable to govern, the corruption is increasing and the population is decreasing. Schools and hospitals are cut down. Even the Academy of Sciences is shrinking due to huge image campaigns such as rebuilding the Russian army, The Olympics or World Championships."

"Criticism of power is the intellectual duty of any thinking person. This is part of my love for the motherland. If I lived in America, I would likewise criticize the American government, the American oil policy in Alaska. I do not engage in political activities, I just pose questions. Sometimes - uncomfortable ones."

"I take a personal insult from Putin as an award."

Personality

Sergey Medvedev is an athlete who has completed dozens of world marathons, several mountain marathons and ultramarathons in the Alps, twice the Tour Transalp cycle race and twice the Arctic Circle Race ski race in Greenland.

Medvedev is a native Russian speaker but he also is fully fluent in English, speaks French, German, Italian, Czech, and reads Polish.

Quotes from others about the person

• "At the next meeting of the chamber, the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia faction will demand the immediate dismissal of the so-called professor of anti-Russian sciences Sergei Medvedev and deprive him of the opportunity to broadcast on the "Kultura" channel." - Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Russian politician, 2013
  
  "Moving from the endangered Arctic to the occupied Crimea and from the politics of the body to memory wars, Medvedev reveals a political machine based on vanity, manipulation, and fear of its own people. Broad-ranging in scope and mind-blowing in details, this book is a must for everyone who is concerned about Russia's present and future." - Alexander Etkind, author of Internal Colonization: Russia's Imperial Experience

Interests

• music

• Philosophers & Thinkers

  Franz Kafka, Michel Foucault

• Politicians

  Alexei Navalny

• Writers

  Mikhail Prishvin, Nikolay Kononov

• Artists

  Directors: Andrei Tarkovsky, Ernst Ingmar Bergman

• Sport & Clubs

  Tinkoff (cycling team), skying, cicling, marathon running

• Athletes

  Odd-Bjørn Hjelmeset, Fabian Cancellara, Andy Schleck

• Music & Bands

  AC/DC, Ludwig van Beethoven, Sergei Prokofiev, Boris Grebenshchikov, Pink Floyd, David Oistrakh, Gustav Mahler, Glenn Gould, Dmitry Shostakowich

Connections

The details of Sergei Medvedev's private life are unknown. It is known that he used to be married before he returned to Russia.

Father:

Aleksandr Viktorovich Medvedev

Acquaintance:

Pope John Paul II

Supervisor:

Andrei Melville

References

• Sergei Medvedev | Facebook