Academician, Director of the Institute of World History, Russian Academy of Sciences

Pia Gjellerup , f. 1959. Leder af Center for Offentlig Innovation. Hun var 2007-2014 bl.a. chef for den politiske afdeling i Danmarks Jurist- og Økonomforbund (DJØF), advokat samt minister 1993 og 1998-2001. Hun var som medlem af Socialdemokratiet folketingsmedlem for Vestre Storkreds fra 8. september 1987-2007. I foråret 1993 besad hun posten som Justitsminister og i perioden 23. marts 1998-21. december 2000 var hun Erhvervsminister. Derefter var hun indtil 27. november 2001 Finansminister.

Uffe Ellemann-Jensen, f.1941. Politiker, journalist, forfatter. Dansk udenrigsminister 1982-93, Medlem af Folketinget 1977-2001, formand for partiet Venstre 1984-98, President European Liberal Party (ELDR) 1995-2000. Adjungeret Professor Copenhagen Business School siden 2006.

Kristian Gerner is Professor Emeritus of History, Lund University. Kristian Gerner’s research and journalism has focused on 20th century Russian (Soviet) Central and East European history and historical culture. He graduated at Lund University in 1984 with a PhD thesis in history The Soviet Union and Central Europe in the Post-war Era (Gower 1985). He was Professor of East European History and Culture, Uppsala University in 1994-2002. He has written on Nordic-Russian historical relations in “The Baltic Region in History”, a chapter in The Baltic Sea Region - Cultures, Politics, Societies (Editor: Witold Maciejewski; The Baltic University Press 2002). His articles and books on Russian and Soviet history include Ideology and Rationality in the Soviet Model. A Legacy for Gorbachev. (With Stefan Hedlund: Routledge 1989) and Ryssland. En europeisk civilisationshistoria (Russia, a history of a European civilization: Historiska Media 2011, 2015).

Lena Hjelm-Wallén, born 1943 is a Swedish politician. In 1968 Hjelm-Wallén became a member of the Swedish Parliament (Riksdag) and she held several cabinet positions, starting in 1974 as the youngest minister to that date. A member of the Social Democratic party, she served as Minister for Education from 1982 to 1985, as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1994 to 1998 and as Deputy Prime Minister from 1995 to 2002.She has served as Chair of the governing Board of the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), an intergovernmental organisation with 25 member states whose objective is supporting sustainable democratic change worldwide.

Anna-Lena Laurén, born 1976, is a Finnish-Swedish Moscow correspondent working for Hufvudstadsbladet and Svenska Dagbladet. She was awarded the State Journalist Award in 2010 for news reporting and Suomen kuvalehti magazine’s journalism prize in 2013. Laurén was also one of three nominees for Journalist of the Year in the 2014 Suuri journalistipalkinto (“Great Journalism Prize”) awards, established by Bonnier. She writes in Swedish and her works have been translated into Finnish, Russian, Norwegian and Ukrainian. Some of her most well-know books are "De är inte kloka, de där ryssarna" (2008), "Frihetens pris är okänt - om demokratiska revolutioner i Georgien, Ukraina och Kirgizistan" (2013) och "Ukraina - gränslandet" (2015.

Paavo Lipponen, born 1941 is a Finnish politician and former reporter. He was Prime Minister of Finland from 1995 to 2003, and Chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Finland from 1993 to 2005. He also served as Speaker of the Parliament of Finland from 2003–2007. 

Kari Aga Myklebost, f. 1973. Professor i historie og Barents Chair in Russian Studies ved UiT Norges arktiske universitet. Hun arbeider med nordområdehistorie og særlig med det historiske forholdet mellom Norge og Russland. Hun har publisert arbeider om det diplomatiske forholdet mellom de to statene, så vel som om forskningssamarbeid og vitenskapelige relasjoner gjennom de siste to hundre år. Myklebost har også arbeidet med minoritetshistoriske forhold ved den norsk-russiske grensen i nord, sist i tobindsverket som munnet ut av det norsk-russiske historikerprosjektet «Det asymmetriske naboskap. Norge og Russland 1814-2014», i form av kronologisk dekkende kapitler i bindene Russland kommer nærmere. Norge og Russland 1814-1917 (redaktør Jens Petter Nielsen, Pax forlag 2014) og Naboer i frykt og forventning. Norge og Russland 1917-2014 (redaktør Sven Holtsmark, Pax forlag 2015).

Øyvind Nordsletten, f.1944, norsk diplomat. I utenrikstjenesten fra 1974. Ambassadør i Kiev 1992–96. 1998–99 ekspedisjonssjef for internasjonale saker ved Statsministerens kontor. 2000–08 ambassadør i Moskva. Ambassadør i Dublin 2008-11. Generalkonsul i Murmansk 2011-13.

Gudrun Persson, born in 1962. Associate Professor, and works at the FOI. She focuses on Russian security policy and foreign policy, as well as Russian military strategic thought. She holds a Ph.D. in Government from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Among her latest publications are Persson, Gudrun et al. (eds) Military Thinking in the 21st Century (Stockholm, 2015); Learning from Foreign Wars. Russian Military Thinking 1859-1873, Helion (2010/2013); ‘Russian Influence and Soft Power in the Baltic States: the View from Moscow’ in Mike Winnerstig (ed.) Tools of Destabilization: Russian Soft Power and Non-military Influence in the Baltic States, FOI 2014.

Gudrun Persson has published widely on Russian and Soviet affairs, including Gulag (2005), Varför föll Sovjetunionen? [Why did the Soviet Union Fall?] (2006), Det sovjetiska arvet [The Soviet Legacy] (2011). She is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of War Sciences and is a member of its Editorial Committee.

Lars P. Poulsen-Hansen, born 1942, worked as a Senior Research Fellow with the Danish Institute of International Studies (DIIS) in Copenhagen 1995-2005, specialising in Russia and the CIS and Russia’s relations to the West. 1996-98 he was Assistant to the Commissioner of the Council of the Baltic Sea States on Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, including the Rights of Persons belonging to Minorities, dealing with Russia, Poland and the OSCE. 1988-95 he served as Research Fellow and later Counsellor at the Secretariat of the Danish Commission on Security and Disarmament. 1973 he graduated from Copenhagen University with a Master’s Research Degree in Slavonic Philology and a master’s dissertation on Soviet historiography of Kievan Rus. Since 1976 he has worked as an interpreter and translator for the Danish Government, Radio Denmark and others. He works regularly with the Danish TV News as a translator (Russian, English, German, Polish). He has been OSCE election observer at several elections in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. He is author, translator and editor of several publications on the Soviet Union, CIS, Russia, Ukraine and Central and Eastern Europe,  i.a. Lars P. Poulsen-Hansen and Niels Erik Rosenfeldt: Regionernes Rusland (Russia of the Regions), DUPI 2001, and Lars P. Poulsen-Hansen: Nobody has peace longer than his neighbour wants. The European Neighbourhood Policy vis-a-vis Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova (in Danish), DIIS 2004. He translated Boris Yeltsin’s memoires ’Zapiski prezidenta’ into Danish (1994), and together with Holger Scheibel he has reproduced all the fables of Ivan Krylov in Danish (Krylovs fabler, 2001). 2005-2006 he updated the articles in the Danish National Encyclopaedia on the former Soviet countries’ geography and history for the internet edition of the encyclopaedia and wrote several new articles. In 2013 his translation into Danish of Gorbachev’s memoirs ‘Naedine s soboi’ was published, and he published a manuscript from The Royal Library of Denmark “The Russian Law of 1649”, a translation into Danish of the law including the translator’s comments to which he supplied introductions, comments and registers.

Alexander Rahr, born 1959 in Taipeh, graduated from Munich State University (MA in History), research analyst at various US and German Foreign Political Institutes, Senior advisor of Wintershall and Gazprom in Europe, project manager, German-Russian Forum.

Hanna Smith. Postdoctoral Researcher at the Aleksanteri Institute in Helsinki, D.Soc.Sc.Expertise: Russian foreign and security policy, Russian politics, International Organisations, Chechnya, CIS area developments

Thorvald Stoltenberg, born 1931.  He served as Minister of Defence (1979–81) and Minister of Foreign Affairs (1987–1989 and 1990–1993) in two Labour governments.From 1989 to 1990 he was appointed Norwegian Ambassador to the UN. In 1990 he became the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, but served only one year before rejoining the Norwegian government. In 1992, Thorvald Stoltenberg, together with nine Baltic Ministers of Foreign Affairs and an EU commissioner, founded the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS) and the EuroFaculty. In 1993 appointed Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for the former Yugoslavia and UN Co-Chairman of the Steering Committee of the International Conference on the former Yugoslavia. Thorvald Stoltenberg was also the UN witness at the signing of Erdut Agreement.In 2003 he was appointed Chairman of the Board of International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA). Between 1999 and 2008 he was President of the Norwegian Red Cross. 

Halvor Tjønn, f. 1952.  Norsk journalist, historiker og forfatter.Han arbeidet som utenriksmedarbeider i Stavanger Aftenblad fra 1981 til 1986. Fra 1986 til til 2014 var han utenriksmedarbeider i Aftenposten og arbeidet i tre ulike perioder som avisens korrespondent i Moskva. Den siste korrespondentperioden var fra 2010 til 2011. Fra 2014 arbeider han som uavhengig journalist, forfatter og foredragsholder.Tjønn har hovedfag i historie og har han skrevet biografier om kongene Harald Hardråde og Olav Tryggvason. I 2006 skrev han en bok om Vikingenes Russland. 

Dr. Dmitri Vitalyevich Trenin, PhD, born 1955), is the director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, a think tank and regional affiliate of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.Trenin is one of Carnegie Moscow Center's founding members, and has been with the organization since its inception in 1993.Trenin is a historian, political pundit, and author. Before joining Carnegie in 1994, he served for 21 years in the Soviet Army and Russian Ground Forces, retiring in 1993 at the rank of colonel.

Valur Ingimundarson, Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Iceland - and the Vice Chair of the Institute of International Affairs. 

Uffe Østergård, f. 1945. Professor emeritus i europæisk og dansk historie ved Department for Business and Politics, Copenhagen Business School. Tidligere Aarhus Universitet og direktør for Dansk Institut for Holocaust og Folkedrabsstudier, København. Primære forskningsområder: politisk kultur og nationalisme i Frankrig, Italien, Tyskland, Østrig-Ungarn, Amerika, United Kingdom, det Osmanniske Rige og Tyrkiet, Balkan, Norden, Danmark, 1. og 2. verdenskrig, nazisme, fascisme, totalitarisme, kulturhistorie, national identitet og nationalisme, international politik, europæisk civilisation og integration, EU, geopolitik, regioner i Europa, holocaust, erindringspolitik, politisk kultur og traditioner i Europa, velfærdsstaten, religion, historisk sociologi, politisk teori.

Tore Hattrem, f. 1962, norsk diplomat og politiker. Han er statssekretær (Høyre) i Utenriksdepartementet. Hattrem var underdirektør i Utenriksdepartementet 2002-2004 og avdelingsdirektør 2004-2007. Deretter var han ambassadør i Colombo 2007-2010 og i Khartoum i 2010. Han ble utnevnt til ambassadør i Kabul i 2010.I 2012 ble Hattrem utnevnt til ekspedisjonssjef i Utenriksdepartementet