Sergei Guriev: Spin Dictators, Information Wars, and the Conflict in Ukraine

In recent decades, a new breed of media-savvy strongmen has been redesigning authoritarian rule for a more sophisticated, globally connected world. What do we know about these “Spin Dictators”?

Sergei Guriev, Professor of Economics at the Department of Economics at Sciences Po, and Maiting Zhuang, Assistant Professor at the Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics, discuss the strategies of “Spin Dictators”, how Putin is turning into a “Fear Dictator” and what the war in Ukraine means for Russia’s economy and media freedom.

Sergei Guriev is a Russian economist and Professor of Economics at the Department of Economics at Sciences Po. From 2016 to 2019, he was the Chief Economist at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Prior to that, he was a Morgan Stanley Professor of Economics and Rector of the New Economic School (NES) in Moscow.

Sergei Guriev has been an outspoken critic of the Russia-Ukraine war and co-founded the organisation True Russia which collects donations for Ukrainian refugees. 

Maiting Zhuang is an Assistant Professor at the Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics and an Affiliated Researcher at the Mistra Center for Sustainable Markets. She received her PhD from the Paris School of Economics in 2020. Her research interests cover Political Economy, Development Economics, and Economics of Media.