Experts & Staff
Kadri Liik
Senior Policy Fellow
Areas of expertise
Russian domestic and foreign policy; relations between Russia and the West; the Baltic Sea area; Eastern Europe
Languages
English, Russian, Estonian
Biography
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.
Russia at the gates of Aleppo
Russia moves towards objective of a negotiated settlement in Syria with a mixture of calculation and carelessness
ECFR’s World in 30 Minutes: Scorecard 2016
ECFR's director Mark Leonard speaks to diplomat Robert Cooper and ECFR policy fellows Susi Dennison, Almut Moeller, Kadri Liik, and Fredrik Wesslau, about ECFR's…
European Foreign Policy Scorecard 2016
The sixth ECFR Foreign Policy Scorecard highlights the EU’s diminishing ability to influence its neighbours, and the neighbourhood’s growing impact on the EU
How to talk with Russia
In a context of severe cultural alienation, how can the EU talk with Russia?
What can we expect from Russia in Syria?
Russia's entry into the Syria conflict was a curveball for the West – but what does it want?
ECFR’s World in 30 Minutes: Russian-Turkish relations
ECFR’s director Mark Leonard speaks to Asli Aydintasbas, ECFR visiting fellow and expert on Turkish foreign policy, and Kadri Liik, ECFR senior policy fellow…
Russian airstrikes in Syria – reactions and repercussions
Julien Barnes-Dacey and Kadri Liik, Senior Policy Fellows at ECFR, Jeremy Shapiro, Fellow at Brookings, and Dr Rim Turkmani, co-founder of the Syrian Civil…
ECFR’s World in 30 Minutes: East – West divide on refugee crisis?
ECFR's director Mark Leonard speaks to Senior Policy Fellow Kadri Liik, and to the head of ECFR's Sofia office, Vessela Tcherneva, about the growing…
The limits and necessity of Europe’s Russia sanctions
One year on from the introduction of sanctions, is the EU any closer to working out what they want them to achieve?
Publications
From Russia with love: How Moscow courts the global south
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, it has been competing with the West for the support of the rest of the world. But with all of its relationships now subordinate to its war effort, Moscow’s foreign policy is weakened
The old is dying and the new cannot be born: A power audit of EU-Russia relations
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
It’s complicated: Russia’s tricky relationship with China
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
The fall of the Afghan government and what it means for Europe
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
Push back, contain, and engage: How the EU should approach relations with Russia
The bloc should reframe how it speaks of human rights and democracy, while developing closer security and military links with select neighbours
Russia’s relative resilience: Why Putin feels vindicated by the pandemic
Covid-19 has damaged Russia’s economy and President Vladimir Putin’s political agenda
The last of the offended: Russia’s first post-Putin diplomats
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
Defender of the faith? How Ukraine’s Orthodox split threatens Russia
Introduction An average Westerner may well have overlooked the potentially seismic geopolitical event of 6 January 2019. On that snowy Sunday – Epiphany in western…
Winning the normative war with Russia: An EU-Russia Power Audit
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
Germany votes: European dilemmas in the Federal Election
In the federal election year, Germans are ready to give new European solutions a strong boost and take more risks
Articles
Caution and embrace: How Europeans should treat exiles from Putin’s Russia
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
Old order dying: What European decision-makers think of Russia
Vladimir Putin may find his war on Ukraine toughens up the West rather than hastens its demise
Putin’s archaic war: Russia’s newly outlawed professional class – and how it could one day return
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
War of obsession: Why Putin is risking Russia’s future
The invasion marks the beginning of a new era for not just the European security order but also Russian society
Biden meets Putin: What lies behind Russia’s military build-up
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
Russia, elections, and the West: Ten years later
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
Biden meets Putin: America, Russia, and the return of diplomacy
The Geneva summit recalled the power of old-fashioned diplomacy and working patiently away at difficult problems
The Nord Stream 2 dispute and the transatlantic alliance
Nord Stream 2 has become a suitcase without a handle: hard to abandon; hard to take along
The invisible battle for Russia’s future
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 Putin paradox: Five things Navalny’s arrest says about Russia
The events Navalny set in motion both indicate the urgent need for change and make such change less likely to happen
Podcasts
East meets West in Ankara: Inside the prisoner swap with Russia
The prisoner exchange between the West and Russia last week was the largest swap since the end of the cold war. At Turkey’s Ankara airport,…
Speeding like a troika: Russia’s uncertain futures
In this final episode, we discuss how the war has transformed Russian society and political culture, and outline possible scenarios for its medium to long term political trajectory
Under the Overcoat: Russian foreign policy: from a U-Turn over the Atlantic to the zigzags of history
This podcast explores deeper trends beneath the surface of Russia’s daily politics. In this episode, we delve deeper into Russia’s foreign policy, taking a long-term perspective.
Under the Overcoat: But the people are silent
This podcast explores deeper trends beneath the surface of Russia’s daily politics. In this episode, we examine public opinion in Russia
Under the Overcoat: Dead Souls, Volume Two
This podcast explores deeper trends beneath the surface of Russia’s daily politics. In this episode, we dive deeper into Russia’s economy during the war on Ukraine
Under the Overcoat: Are we the baddies? Russian civil-military relations and the bomb
This podcast explores deeper trends beneath the surface of Russia’s daily politics. In this episode, we analyse who is really in charge of the Russian military and its nuclear weapons.
Under the overcoat: The death of a clerk
How do Russian officials “coexist” with the war nearly two years after the invasion? How has the bureaucratic system adapted to the requirements of the war?…
Under the overcoat: God save the Tsar
The Russian Orthodox Church is supporting Russia’s war on Ukraine in its sermons, sending priests to the front, and collecting humanitarian aid for soldiers and…
Under the Overcoat: the past is unpredictable
On 1 September, Russian high schools transitioned to new “patriotic” history textbooks authored by one of Russia’s staunchest conservatives, former culture minister Vladimir Medinsky. How…
A view from Moscow
Jeremy Shapiro welcomes Kadri Liik and Valerie Hopkins to discuss what Russian society really thinks about war in Ukraine
Events
2 Jul
A “State-Civilization”: Russia’s ideological renewal after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine
This webinar will explore the role of ideology in the day-to-day management of the Russian political regime
4 Mar
Charm offensive: What should the West make of Moscow’s Efforts to Court the Global South
Exploring Russia’s global engagement and its implications for the West
14 Jun
Who controls the Russian military?
What are the political dynamics surrounding the Russian military? Exploring potential scenarios for Russia’s civil-military development and implications for NATO and Europe
31 Jan
Power audit of EU-Russia relations: How Europeans are learning to handle a new reality
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?
17 May
It’s complicated: The Russia-China Axis
This event is part of the German Forum on Security Policy, organised by the Federal Academy for Security Policy (BAKS).
23 Mar
The role of outside powers in Ukraine
Do any outside powers have any chance of bringing Russia and Ukraine closer to peace?
27 Jan
Tensions in the East: How to strengthen a common European position vis-à-vis Russia?
This webinar will bring together a collection of EU and British views to see where everyone stands on the Russia-Ukraine crisis
19 Jan
China-Russia – Strategic alignment or alliance in the making?
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
11 Jun
What to expect from the Putin-Biden summit?
What, if anything, can one say about the longer-term perspectives for the US-Russia relationship?
24 Mar
Should the EU revise its approach to Russia?
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…
In the media
Kadri Liik on the relationship between Trump and Putin
What made him special was that he was able to build up a decent organization, yet inside Russia. His anti-corruption fund for instance: I don’t see anything like that being recreated right now
Kadri Liik on Navalny’s death and on the future of Russian dissent
Kadri Liik on Zelensky’s tour of the Baltic states
In this podcast, Kadri Liik talks about Russia’s future
In this podcast, Kadri Liik talks about the relevance of the ‘October events’ in Russia and the future of the Western support for Ukraine