Please join the Fletcher Eurasia Club for a conversation about the state of Russia’s opposition movement with Leonid Volkov, political director of Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF), and Anna Biryukova, the ACF’s head of public opinion polling. They will discuss public sentiment trends in Russia after two and a half years of its invasion of Ukraine.

The conversation will be held under the Chatham House Rule. We encourage you to watch Volkov’s earlier conversation about Russian public perceptions of the war in Ukraine and read about recent struggles within the Russian opposition in exile following the death of Navalny.

The Eurasia Club weekly lunch seminar series engages with students, faculty, staff, and researchers to foster a better understanding of the region among members of the Fletcher community. Members of the wider Tufts community are also welcome to attend. Please register via myFletcher to attend the event in person. If you would like to submit discussion questions for the speaker in advance, please do not hesitate to reach out to us. Lunch will be served following the conversation. 

Leonid Volkov is the Political Director of the Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF), the leading organization of the Russian anti-Putin and anti-war resistance movement founded by the late Alexei Navalny. He was campaign manager and chief of staff for Navalny’s Moscow mayoral campaign of 2013 and presidential campaign of 2018. Since 2019, he has to reside outside of Russia. There are 11 politically motivated criminal cases against him initiated by Putin’s regime. Leonid is teaching a course on Russian politics as a visiting assistant professor at Wesleyan University during the Fall 2024-2025 semester.

Anna Biryukova is the Head of Public Opinion Research at the Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF), Russia’s leading opposition organization founded by the late Alexei Navalny. She has conducted independent surveys and polls, often under pressure from the Putin regime. Forced to leave Russia in 2019, she continues her work from exile in Lithuania, managing a team of interviewers and running nationwide polls crucial for ACF’s fight against the Putin regime. In the Fall 2024-2025 semester, Anna is honored to serve as a Yale World Fellow at Yale University.