Our Authors

Hristo Voynov is an Editor at The Vostokian. A Bulgarian-American who grew up in Brooklyn, New York, Hristo graduated with a BA in Political Science at Hunter College and is currently doing an MA in Political Science at the CUNY Graduate Center. His interests include radical politics, underground movements, and conflicts.

Born and raised in Skopje, Kristijan is a Doctoral Candidate at Oxford University's Department of Social Policy and Intervention, where he is exploring fertility policies in Eastern Europe. completed his undergraduate degree in Politics and East European Studies at University College London in 2017, He then obtained a graduate degree in Russian, Eurasian and East European Studies at Georgetown University in 2019. In the past, Kristijan has worked as a monitoring and reporting assistant for one of USAID's programs in Skopje and interned for the Washington, D.C. headquarters of the American Bar Association. He is fluent in Macedonian, Serbian, English, Italian, German, and Russian. Beside fertility policy, his primary interests lie in party systems, discourse analysis, and conspiracy theories in the ex-Yugoslav countries and Eastern Europe.

Eva is an Editor at The Vostokian. She is a Skopje native and a current Master's Candidate and Fellow at the Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington DC. Eva holds a BA degree in European Studies from Otto von Guericke University in Magdeburg, Germany, where she studied on a full merit-based DAAD scholarship. Her main interest is the European integration of the Western Balkans, as well as the domestic politics and society of the East and Southeast European countries.

Alex is the founder of The Vostokian and has lived across Eastern Europe and the Balkans. He is the COO of Upshift, an on-demand staffing platform based in the USA.

Armando is a graduate of SUNY Tirana where he studied International Relations and Political Science. He now lives and works as an independent researcher in Tirana, Albania.

Aleksej Demjanski is currently a dual degree master’s candidate in Global Policy Studies and Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies at the University of Texas – Austin, where his research focuses on democratization processes in Southeast Europe and Latin America. He holds a B.A. in International Affairs from The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs in Washington, DC. Some of his previous experiences include time at the U.S. House of Representatives as well as the Office of the Coordinator of U.S. Assistance to Europe and Eurasia at the U.S. Department of State.

Nicolas is a graduate of Columbia University, where he earned his B.A. in Political Science and Russian Language and Culture. He spent three years working in Moscow, Russia at an international law firm and is now in the process of completing his Master’s in Economics at University College London.

Daniel Kozin is a St. Petersburg based Russian-American graduate student and journalist. His main points of interest are US-Russian relations, foreign policy discourses, and media analysis.

Marijana is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Transnational Studies at University College London (UCL) in human rights issues, ethnopolitical conflicts, and the Western Balkans. Her Master’s thesis is on reconciliation processes and approaches in post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina. Prior to her studies at UCL, she completed a Bachelor’s degree at Zurich University, Switzerland, where she studied Modern Languages and Communications. In addition to that, she spent one semester at the University of Melbourne, attending courses in human rights, development aid, and conflict studies. She developed an interest in international politics and divided societies during a summer school at the London School of Economics and Politics in 2013. Apart from her studies, she gained experience in the human rights field as an intern at Minority Rights Group in London where she performed tasks such as research, media monitoring, drafting reports and liaising with partners and donors.

Sabin was born in Slovenia on the day the Berlin Wall fell. As a recipient of Presidential Scholarship he graduated with a Bachelor degree in Economics and International Studies (double major) at American University in Washington, DC, and also as a Chevening scholar with a Master of Science degree in International Public Policy at University College London. He has a wide professional experience working in the public sector and is currently engaged as a consultant. His fields of interests include digital diplomacy, transatlantic relations and EU affairs with a penchant for the Balkans.

Marija Vishinova holds an MA in Diplomacy and International Relations from the Faculty of Law Iustinianus Primus, Skopje, Macedonia, and a joint MA degree in Interdisciplinary Research and Studies on Eastern Europe from the University of Bologna, Italy, Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary, and Overseas period the Department of Slavic Studies and History at University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign, USA. She is fluent in Macedonian, Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian, English, Italian, and Russian. Her primary interests are the politics of EU enlargement of the Western Balkan countries, process of Europeanization, Rule of Law, migration, good governance and anti-corruption polices in Eastern Europe.

Angela Gjekanovikj is a graduate and a former teaching and research assistant of the Perrotis College in Thessaloniki with a Bachelor of Science in International Business. Born and raised in Skopje, Macedonia, she spent the last 5 years working and studying abroad. A recipient of the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study (YES) scholarship provided by the US Department of State, she finished high school in Bakersfield, California. In 2014, she went to a summer school in Kosovo on the European Integration of the Western Balkans, where she developed an interest in politics. In 2015, she got the Fulbright scholarship to pursue her graduate studies in Political Economy in the United States in 2016.

Rusif Huseynov is a Baku-based independent researcher. His main areas of interest are peace and conflict studies, while his focus area covers mainly Eastern Europe, Middle East, Caucasus and Central Asia.

Phoenix is a B.A. International Studies (Europe) candidate at the University of Florida. Her academic concentration includes East-Central Europe, European Union Politics, and transnational security policy. Phoenix is a former Gilman Scholar of the U.S Department of State and a current recipient of the FLAS Fellowship from the U.S. Department of Education for her advanced studies of the Hungarian language. Her current undergraduate research focuses on Hungary's counter-terrorism program. She has journalistic experience in the United States and Europe where she most notably reported for New Europe in the Brussels capital region.

Adnan is a Bosnia and Hercegovina native with a BA in Law and an MA in State Management and Humanitarian Affairs. Since 2006 he has been involved in human rights advocacy, litigation, policy development and implementation in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He has an extensive experience in international organizations, working predominantly on the improvement of the human rights challenges in Bosnia and Hercegovina. Currently, he's an external associate of the Human Rights Centre of the University of Sarajevo and a member of the editorial board of the International Journal on Rule of Law, Transitional Justice and Human Rights.

Nadire is currently a Monitoring and Result Measurement Specialist at Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation (MK) responsible for the design, continuous improvement and management of the MRM System of the project "Education for Employment in Macedonia" as well as for advising the Project Management in strategic steering. Previously she worked as a Parliamentary Advisor at Westminster Foundation for Democracy in Skopje and as researcher at several international projects. As a recipient of Chevening Scholarship she graduated with a Master of Science degree in Public Policy at University College London and also obtained Bachelor degrees in Psychology at Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje and American Studies at International Balkan University.

Hailing from Belgrade, Serbia, Millie Radovic graduated with a BA in International Relations at King’s College London. She is currently a Dahrendorf Scholar at St Antony’s College and pursuing an MSc in Russian and Eastern European Studies at the University of Oxford. Her interests include European integration, transnational organised crime, and neo-patrimonial politics in Eastern Europe.

Yuri Glukharev is a Saint Petersburg native and an International Relations undergraduate student at the Saint Petersburg State University. His main research interests include the rights of disabled people in Latin America.

Lillian Posner is a Master's candidate and research fellow at the Center for Eurasian, Russian, and East European Studies at Georgetown University. She obtained her BA at the Oberlin College and since then has gained some work in Russia. Lily is currently pursuing her certificate in Humanitarian Crises and Refugee Studies and is focused on improving conditions for civil liberties, human rights, and economic development in Russia and Eurasia. She speaks Russian and French.

Originally hailing from Macedonia, Ivana Jordanovska is a former adviser to Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev and a current Fulbright Scholar at New York University.

Veronika is a graduate of the University of Ljubljana with a Bachelor degree in Russian and Art History. To expand her horizons during her studies, she spent two semesters abroad: the first studying Russian language and culture at Kazan Federal University in Russia and the second studying Art History at Humboldt University in Germany. For three years, she has been working as a journalist for the Slovenian online newspaper Domovina.je, with her main interest being Russian affairs.

Lazar Pop Ivanov holds an MA in International Relations from King’s College London and an LLM from the Faculty of Law in Skopje. Marija Mirchevska holds an MS in Global Crime, Justice and Security from the University of Edinburgh.