Please join the Fletcher Russia and Eurasia Program at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University for a talk by Mikhail Troitskiy on the role of secrecy in negotiations to end the Russo–Ukrainian war. 

While confidentiality often enables progress in international negotiations, the speaker will argue that, under certain conditions, a powerful mediator can overcome obstruction by strategically disclosing selected information about the positions that are preventing agreement—thereby increasing pressure to compromise and advancing the prospects for peace.

Mikhail Troitskiy is Visiting Professor and Administrator of the Russia and Eurasia Program at Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. He was a visiting scholar at Harvard University’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies in 2024-25 and a professor of practice in Russian studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2023-24. From 2003 to 2022, he held academic and philanthropic roles in Russia, including service as dean and associate professor at MGIMO University and as deputy director and program officer at the MacArthur Foundation’s Moscow office. His work focuses on Russian foreign policy, Eurasian politics, conflict resolution, and international security. He has published in Post-Soviet Affairs, Negotiation Journal, WIREs Climate Change, Problems of Post‑Communism, Survival, Global Policy, and the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and has contributed commentary to Newsweek, the International New York Times, Fox LiveNow, CNN, NPR, Boston 7News, the BBC, ABC Australia, the Moscow Times, and other outlets.