Marlene Laruelle and Vuk Vuksanovic discuss the sources of Russian soft power and the Kremlin’s flexible tactics of projecting influence abroad. The discussion focuses in particular on the Balkans, where local actors play a significant role in amplifying Russian narratives.  

Marlene Laruelle is Director and Research Professor at the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES), Elliott School of International Affairs, The George Washington University.  

Vuk Vuksanovic is a senior researcher at the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy (BCSP) and an associate at LSE IDEAS, a foreign policy think tank within the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).