Research Fellow, Center for Order and Governance in Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia.
Alena Epifanova is a research fellow in the Center for Order and Governance in Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) in Berlin. She leads research on Russia’s “sovereign internet” and technology policy, and the threats digital authoritarianism poses to democracy and the global order. Her particular interest lies in Russia’s censorship and surveillance systems, tech dependencies between Russia and the West, and Internet governance in Russia, Central Asia, and Europe. Before joining DGAP in 2018, Alena worked at the Centre International de formation européenne (CIFE) and conducted freelance academic research for the journal OSTEUROPA and the Institute for European Politics (IEP). Epifanova holds a master’s degree in political science from the Free University of Berlin. She received an International Parliamentary Scholarship from the German Bundestag (IPS) and is an alumna of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation. Her research has been cited in media outlets such as Wired, MIT Technology Review, Fortune, The Financial Times and BBC.