Maria Snegovaya is a PhD candidate at Columbia University, studying the sources of support for the populist parties in the Eastern Europe. Her PhD thesis compares the cases of Hungary and Czech Republic and explains the popularity of Hungary’s radical right Jobbik party as a function of the economic convergence of the two mainstream parties (MSZP and Fidesz) and lack of the radical left alternative. During her PhD program Maria collaborated with the Institute for the Study of War, the Brookings Institution, the Eurasia Group and the Freedom House.

At the same time, Maria regularly travels to Russia and Ukraine, runs a column at Russia’s Vedomosti, a business daily, and regularly contributes to The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, The National Interest, The New Republic, and The American Interest.

Maria’s main journalistic focus is Russia’s domestic and foreign policy, nuances of its political system and dynamics of contemporary autocracies, Ukraine’s domestic situation, and the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.

Maria also holds a MA and MPhil in Political Science from Columbia University an a Candidate Degree in Economics and a BA in Economics and Finance from Higher School of Economics.

Fun-fact: When she was 21 years old, she decided to sky dive from a Russian plane.