Sergei Medvedev is Professor at the Free University in Moscow. Born in Moscow, he studied at the Moscow State University, Charles University in Prague, and Columbia University in New York City, and holds a Ph.D. in history. In the past 25 years, he has held research positions and professorships in Russia, Germany, Italy and Finland, specializing in political history, sociology and cultural studies. He is also a prominent media figure in Russia, making weekly talk shows on politics, society and culture for TV and radio, and writing critical essays for leading media outlets.

His collection of short stories was shortlisted for Russian Booker Prize. His most recent book on Putin’s Russia, The Return of the Russian Leviathan (Cambridge, Polity Press, 2019) has won the Pushkin House Book Prize as best English-language non-fiction book on Russia in 2020. In 2021, he published an autobiographic novel, The Running Man (Homo Currens) telling about his experiences as an amateur athlete, and exploring the role of sports in the modern world.