Senior Policy Fellow
Russian domestic and foreign policy; relations between Russia and the West; the Baltic Sea area; Eastern Europe
English, Russian, Estonian
Kadri Liik is a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. Her research focuses on Russia, Eastern Europe, and the Baltic region.
Before joining ECFR in October 2012, Liik was the director of the International Centre for Defence Studies in Estonia from 2006 until 2011, where she also worked as a senior researcher and director of the Centre’s Lennart Meri Conference. Throughout the 1990s, Liik worked as a Moscow correspondent for several Estonian daily papers, including the highest-circulation daily in Estonia, Postimees, as well as Eesti Päevaleht and the Baltic News Service. In 2002, she became the foreign news editor at Postimees. In 2004, she left to become editor-in-chief at the monthly foreign affairs magazine, Diplomaatia. She was also the host of “Välismääraja”, a current affairs talkshow at Raadio Kuku in Tallinn.
Liik holds a BA in Journalism from Tartu University (Estonia) and an MA in International Relations specialising in diplomacy from Lancaster University.
Europeans should allow their countries to be hosts for free debate among the Russian emigrés of the 21st century. But they should resist the temptation to view the exiles as channels of influence to reform Russia.
Mark Leonard welcomes Theo Murphy, Pavel Slunkin, Kadri Liik, and Kirill Shamiev to shed light on the possible consequences of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s death
Mark Leonard welcomes Marie Dumoulin, Kadri Liik, Pavel Slunkin and Kiril Shamiev to shed light on the weekend’s events and discuss the new reality that has opened up in Russia
What are the political dynamics surrounding the Russian military? Exploring potential scenarios for Russia’s civil-military development and implications for NATO and Europe
Concluding that Russia poses a threat and that the EU let its dependencies grow too deep, the bloc so far attempted to decouple from Moscow. How should Europeans navigate the adversarial relationship in the future?
ECFR’s new EU-Russia power audit reveals a picture of success in decoupling from Moscow – and suggests the bloc could emerge stronger from the crisis
Vladimir Putin may find his war on Ukraine toughens up the West rather than hastens its demise
Mark Leonard is joined by ECFR’s Piotr Buras, Gustav Gressel, Kadri Liik, and Jeremy Shapiro to describe and debate the potential military, security, and economic aspects of the long-war plan
Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is effectively ‘demodernising’ Russia. Military victories for Moscow will make it inordinately harder for more democratic-minded, if not pro-Western, successors to restore Russia to the international community.
This event is part of the German Forum on Security Policy, organised by the Federal Academy for Security Policy (BAKS).
ECFR’s new EU-Russia power audit reveals a picture of success in decoupling from Moscow – and suggests the bloc could emerge stronger from the crisis
The West does not have an opportunity to prompt a policy U-turn in Moscow that divides Russia and China. But it could give Russia space to hedge against China in key areas
ECFR’s policy experts examine what the Taliban takeover means for countries and regions around the world: Europe, the US, the Middle East, Russia, China, Iran, Turkey, and the Sahel
The bloc should reframe how it speaks of human rights and democracy, while developing closer security and military links with select neighbours
Covid-19 has damaged Russia’s economy and President Vladimir Putin’s political agenda
Russia’s new generation of foreign policy professionals bring with them a shift in attitudes that challenges centrality of “the West” in Russian foreign policy
Introduction An average Westerner may well have overlooked the potentially seismic geopolitical event of 6 January 2019. On that snowy Sunday – Epiphany in western…
The path to winning the normative war will not go so much through countering Russia as through improving Europe’s resilience and reinvigorating its model
In the federal election year, Germans are ready to give new European solutions a strong boost and take more risks
Joint military operations in Syria have brought Russia and Iran relations closer than at any point since World War II
Europeans should allow their countries to be hosts for free debate among the Russian emigrés of the 21st century. But they should resist the temptation to view the exiles as channels of influence to reform Russia.
Vladimir Putin may find his war on Ukraine toughens up the West rather than hastens its demise
Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is effectively ‘demodernising’ Russia. Military victories for Moscow will make it inordinately harder for more democratic-minded, if not pro-Western, successors to restore Russia to the international community.
The invasion marks the beginning of a new era for not just the European security order but also Russian society
Moscow’s armed presence on Ukraine’s border may be connected to Vladimir Putin’s long-standing desire to discuss and change Europe’s geopolitical order
If the Kremlin sees the Duma election result as a buffer that will allow it to safely prepare for a transition at the top, the Russian political system might still find a way to evolve. But, if it views the result as confirmation that the system works just fine, its ‘victory’ really is a Pyrrhic one.
The Geneva summit recalled the power of old-fashioned diplomacy and working patiently away at difficult problems
Nord Stream 2 has become a suitcase without a handle: hard to abandon; hard to take along
There are homegrown democrats in Russia who do not automatically sympathise with the West. They could lead the country to change from the top.
The events Navalny set in motion both indicate the urgent need for change and make such change less likely to happen
Mark Leonard welcomes Theo Murphy, Pavel Slunkin, Kadri Liik, and Kirill Shamiev to shed light on the possible consequences of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s death
Mark Leonard welcomes Marie Dumoulin, Kadri Liik, Pavel Slunkin and Kiril Shamiev to shed light on the weekend’s events and discuss the new reality that has opened up in Russia
Mark Leonard is joined by ECFR’s Piotr Buras, Gustav Gressel, Kadri Liik, and Jeremy Shapiro to describe and debate the potential military, security, and economic aspects of the long-war plan
How is Russia’s attack on Ukraine perceived in China? Will Russia and China be joining forces in an ‘alliance of autocracies’? What does Russian and Chinese policymakers planning look like now – and what should Europeans do?
As the situation at the Ukrainian border escalates, Mark Leonard and his guests talk about the recent developments and the state of play at the ground
What are European and American interests in the Russia-Ukraine crisis? What are possible ways to avert a calamity?
How serious is the Russian troop build-up near the Ukraine border? And what should NATO do about it?
What lessons can be drawn from Josep Borrell’s controversial visit to Moscow?
In this week’s episode, Jeremy Shapiro stepped in as host and welcomes senior policy fellows Kadri Liik and Andrew Wilson as well as political scientist…
Kadri Liik presented her latest policy brief “The last of the offended: Russia’s first post-Putin diplomats” in a webinar organised by the Rome Office on…
What are the political dynamics surrounding the Russian military? Exploring potential scenarios for Russia’s civil-military development and implications for NATO and Europe
Concluding that Russia poses a threat and that the EU let its dependencies grow too deep, the bloc so far attempted to decouple from Moscow. How should Europeans navigate the adversarial relationship in the future?
This event is part of the German Forum on Security Policy, organised by the Federal Academy for Security Policy (BAKS).
Do any outside powers have any chance of bringing Russia and Ukraine closer to peace?
This webinar will bring together a collection of EU and British views to see where everyone stands on the Russia-Ukraine crisis
This panel is part of the annual Japan-Europe Core Group Warsaw 2022 on “The Future of Russia-China Relations – Implications for European and Japanese Foreign Policy
What, if anything, can one say about the longer-term perspectives for the US-Russia relationship?
In February High Representative Josep Borrell visited Moscow to discuss key issues of concern and test the waters for building a more „constructive dialogue” between…
Kadri Liik on Ukraine´s NATO route
Kadri Liik talks about Ukraine’s unresolved hopes of NATO membership in Vilnius
It’s perfectly fine for Scholz to make the attempt. While I don’t think this phone call will be fruitful, I don’t believe it can cause any harm either.
Kadri Liik comments on Germany’s apparent willingness to restart talks with Putin
It’s nice to think of Russia as confronting the hegemon as opposed to having invaded a smaller neighbor
Kadri Liik explains Putin’s framing of the violent conflict in Ukraine
Russia has gone from an authoritarian country to a more or less totalitarian one. How different opinions are punished, social and media organizations simply shut down.
Kadri Liik comments on the change in Russian domestic politics
