Profiling the Russian Experts on Sanctions Evasion

Topic: Russian Academic Infrastructure Supporting Sanctions Evasion
Case Study HSE Moscow Sanctions Compliance Programs

Executive Summary

T-Invariant reported that the Higher School of Economics (HSE) in Moscow has launched a new master's program and a brief professional development course aimed at training students to navigate Western sanctions on Russia.

• HSE Moscow has launched a formal educational program explicitly designed to train professionals in avoiding Western sanctions.
• The program's staff of experts includes a sanctioned individual, a former export control official, academics and diplomats.
• The staff are mostly members of state-aligned policy networks (RIAC, Valdai Club)
• Russian academia is being operationalised as part of economic warfare and resilience and the program represents an insitutional effort to convert sanctions compliance into sanctions evasion capability.
• The program is not indicative of a long-term trend. It is a response to the need for sanctions experts as the Russian economy splits into domestic and international spheres.

Background

Western sanctions rely on knowledge asymmetry and compliance costs and the HSE program represents an effort to reduce this asymmetry by embedding sanctions expertise into universities and linking academia, state agencies, SOEs, and private tech firms. This effort reflects previous efforts of the Russian state to align universities with the needs of the war effort in areas such as cyber-offensive capabilities, though some argue the programme is opportunistic rather than a cohesive effort. By studying the experts and their careers we can shed light on the the ecosystem behind Moscow's capacity building and assess the seriousness of programmes like the one offered by HSE.

What this report covers, then, are the experts teaching the course and the picture their careers paint of how knowledge flows between government, academia, and the private sector.

Institutional Ecosystem

The key actors mapped in this report are embedded in an overlapping institutional ecosystem that links academia, state bodies, state-owned enterprises, private firms, and semi-official policy platforms.

This ecosystem is a knowledge-production environment and serves to develop and transfer expertise on sanctions and export control.

Policy platforms and academia

At the centre of this ecosystem are a small number of academic and quasi-academic institutions that repeatedly occur across the careers of key actors providing institutional continuity:

• Higher School of Economics (HSE)
• MGIMO University (under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
• Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC)
• Valdai Discussion Club

These institutions bridge government and academia. HSE and MIGMO provide formal academic settings while RIAC and Valdai are policy-facing platforms that translate this expertise into recommendations.

Many of the experts hold roles across these bodies. Vaily Kashin, Ivan Timofeev, Inna Ynikeyeva, Leo Sokolschik, and Egor Prokhin are all connected to HSE or MGIMO, while Kashin and Timofeev both hold roles in RIAC and Valdai. In addition to experience in research and policy, the experts teaching at HSE often have ties to state institutions and state corporations where they have operational experience.

Revolving door between military agencies, state corporations, and big tech

A defining characteristic of the experts is their experience in Russian state institutions, state corporations and big tech such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), FSTEC, Rosatom, and Yandex.

MGIMO is essentially MFA's academic arm, training diplomats and policy experts. Dmitry Kiku moved from the MFA into sanctions work at the UN Security Council and is now one of the experts teaching the course.

Export-control expertise circulates between military regulators, state corporations, big tech and the diplomatic service. Dmitry Kiku moved from the MFA's academic arm, MGIMO, and worked as a sanctions expert on the UN Security Council. Both Inna Yanikeyeva and Maria Roskoshnaya have significant ties to military and state institutions. Yanikeyeva works at the Department for Control over External Restrictions while Roskoshnaya worked with export control at FSTEC (a military agency under the Russian Ministry of Defence), then Rusatom, and now Yandex.

These links suggest that sanctions expertise is not merely academic but operational, feeding into policy formulation, compliance strategies, and countermeasures at the state level.

Sanctions and export controls as a distinct professional domain

Within this ecosystem, sanctions and export controls have emerged as a distinct professional domain. This is evident in:

• Specialised research centres, such as HSE’s Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies (CCEIS), which concentrates multiple sanctions experts.
• Training and certification programmes, including courses promoted via Ivan Timofeev’s “Sanctions Work” channel and delivered in partnership with the Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Industry, RIAC, law firms, and China-focused consultancies.
• Private-sector spillover, where academic experts also consult for Russian and Chinese companies, translating regulatory knowledge into business risk management and trade facilitation.

The result is a semi-formal market for sanctions expertise that blurs the line between compliance education and sanctions circumvention, particularly in the context of ongoing restrictions against Russia.

Overall Assessment

It's difficult to fully assess the value of the program to the Russian war effort because of a few outstanding questions. We don't know who funds the programs, who the corporate participants are and where alumni are placed. We also don't know who the students are and if they come from specific countries or what the course materials looks like. Because of this gap in our understanding, it is important to not overstate the significance of the HSE program and there's a valid case not to do so.

According to Igor Lipits, one of the founders of HSE, 'the program lacks critical faculty staff' and he describes the experts teaching the course as "opportunists".¹ Abdrei Yakovlev, former HSE vice rector, also told T-invariant that the program, rather than indicative of a long-term trends, reflects the Russian education market's response to Russia's economy splitting into domestic and international spheres.²

Though it might be fair to criticise the program for being opportunistic, taken together, the institutional ecosystem constitutes a coherent network rather than a loose collection of experts. The ecosystem is characterised by:

• High personnel overlap across sanctioned institutions.
• Direct links to ministries, security agencies, and state owned enterprises.
• Active engagement with private companies and structured dissimination of sanctions-related knowledge.

Against this backdrops, the analysis of sanctions at the HSE and MGIMO should be viewed as a broader state-aligned system that operationalises and commercialises expertise relevant to potentially circumventing international sanctions.

Key Actors

Vasily Kashin

SANCTIONED

Vasily Borisovich Kashin (born 18 September 1973, Moscow) is of particular interest. Canadian authorities placed him on a sanctions list in 2023 under the Special Economic Measures Act targeting close collaborators of the Russian regime and agents of disinformation.²³. Notably, HSE, RIAC, and MIGMO are also on the Canadian sanctions list which targets individuals and organisations involved in propaganda, disinformation and the removal of Ukrainian children to Russia. Kashin is involved in all three institutions; he's a Chief Research Fellow at MIGMO and member of both the Valdai Discussion Club and RIAC.

Piecing together Kashin's work history tells us his career is primarily in the service of Russian state institutions. His background is in academia, state media, and government agencies.

Career:

• Member of the Valdai Discussion Club.
• Member of RIAC.
• Chief Research Fellow at the Center for Comprehensive Sinology and Regional Projects at MIGMO (2018 - Present).
• Deputy head of RIA Novosti representative office in Beijin (2010-2011). RIA Novosti used to be one of the largest state news agencies in Russia before it was disbanded in 2013.
• Research fellow at the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (since 2009).
• Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Far Eastern Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences (since 2001)
• Government Agencies (before Russian Academy of Sciences, exact dates unknown).
• PhD in Political Science

That Kashin used to work for state agencies is mentioned in a bio on Forbes, but what agencies he worked for is unclear for now.⁴

Kashin is embedded across:

• HSE
• MGIMO
• RIAC
• Valdai Discussion Club

Assessment: Kashin is a leading expert in Sino-Russian relations and military-technical cooperation. He holds a senior leadership role at HSE and he is currently sanctioned by Canada. These measures were part of sanctions targeting individuals of involvement in Russian propaganda and supporting the invasion of Ukraine.

Dmitry KIKU, Дмитрий Кику

Dmitry Kiku is a career diplomat who served in Berlin and Baku. In his capacity at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kiku has worked on sanctions related issues at the UN Security Conucil. He joined the Panel of Experts on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in 2014 and UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres reappointed Kiku to the panel in 2017. Kiku earned his BA degree in Economics at Moscow University of Cooperation and holds a PhD in Political Sciecne from Russian Diplomatic Academy.

Twitter: https://x.com/kikusan76 , @Kikusan76. (Dmitry has other social media but these profiles are omitted from the report due to ethical considerations.)

Career:

• Ministry of Foreign Affairs
• UN Security Council, Panel of Expert on North Korea
• PhD Russian Diplomatic Academy.

Embedded across:

• Ministry of Foreign Affairs
• United Nations Security Council
• Russian Diplomatic Academy

Assessment: Dmitry Kiku is a political expert and career diplomat with a significant background in international sanctions. His connection to the Russian Foreign State Department and work on North Korea could enable companies seeking to evade sanctions.

Maria Roskoshnaya, Мария Роскошная

Maria Roskoshnaya started her career at the Federal Service for Technical and Export Control of Russia (FSTEC), a military agency under the Russian Ministry of Defence. FSTEC licences the export of weapons and dual-use technology and the agency is responsible for military information security. In its capacity, FSTEC liases with the FSB and maintains Russia's Data Security Threats Database and the national vulnerability database. Roskoshnaya worked at FSTEC for almost 4 years before joining Rusatom as Head of Export Control Department. She is now the Head of Export Control at Yandex.

Career:

• Head of Export Control and Foreign Economic Activity Support Department, Yandex LLC
• Yandex, Export Control Lead, Dec 2022 to Present
• Rusatom, Director of Rosatom’s export control center, Feb 2023 to Aug 2023
• Rusatom, Head of Export Control Department, Director of Rosatom’s Export Control Center, 2018-2023
• Federal Service for technical Export Controls (FSTEC of the Russian Federation), 3 years 11 months.

Embedded across:

• Yandex
• Rusatom
• FSTEC

Assessment: Roskoshnaya's work history illustrates the shared expertise that exists between military agencies, tech companies and state companies in Russia. Her expertise could enable companies looking to circumvent European Union export controls on circuits, communication items, components and other high priority items required for the war effort.⁵

Ivan Timofeev Иван Тимофеев

Ivan Timofeev is the Director General of the Russian International Affairs Council. He is an Associate Professor at MGIMO University and a leading expert on anti-Russian sanctions.

Like Kashin and so many other academics, Timofeev is also a member of RIAC and the Valdai Discussion Club.⁶

His profile on the Valdai Discussion Club's website gives us a pretty clear picture of his career:⁷

Career

• Programme Director of the Valdai Discussion Club; since (2015-Present)
• Director General of the Russian International Affairs Council; Associate Professor at MGIMO MFA of Russia (2023-Present). He previously held the position of Director of Programmes and was responsible research and relations with government agencies and the media.
• Head of Analytical Monitoring Centre at MGIMO University (2009–2011). He has been Associate Professor at MGIMO University since 2006.

Timofeev also runs a telegram channel called "Sanctions Work" with some 12500 followers. The channel functions like a newsletter. It updates users on regulatory developments, the latest sanctioned companies, global affairs, and promotes professional development courses.

One course promoted on the channel is the Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Industry's course starting October 14 2025: "Export Controls of the US, EU and China: Risks and Compliance Strategies for Foreign Trade Participants".⁸ Timofeev is one of the program's instructors and the program is partnered with the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC), Consulting Group Window to China, and Law Firm BGP Litigation.

The two partner organisations contribute speakers. BGP's speaker is Maria Udobova who is an advisor to the Compliance and Sanctions Law Practice at BGP Litigatio and Albert Trofimov is an advisor to China Window and an Associate Professor at St Petersburg State University.

Embedded across

• RIAC
• MGIMO University
• Valdai Discussion Club
• Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Industry
• Window to China
• Law Firm BGP Litigation

Assessment: Ivan is a political expert with ties to the private sector and academia. He is active in promoting sanctions related courses.

Inna Yanikeyeva Инна Яникеева

Inna Yanikeyeva has a career in the Russian civil service and she is advertised as an expert on US, Australian, Canadian, and British sanctions. According to RIAC and HSE, she holds a PhD in Political Science from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and is proficient in English, Spanish, and Italian.

Inna is a Research Fellow at the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies (CCEIS) at HSE and her experience in the civil service is as an Advisor to the State Civilian Service of the Russian Federation (3rd class), and she worked in the Department for Control over External Restrictions at the Ministry of Finance until 2024.⁹

Career

• HSE, Research Fellow at the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies
• Advisor to the State Civivilian Service of the Russian Federation
• Department for Control over External Restrictions at the Ministry of Finance

Embedded across

• HSE
• State Civilian Civil Service
• Ministry of Finance, Department for Control over External Restrictions.

Leo Sokolshchik, Лев Сокольщик

Leo Sokolshchik the coordinator of the Russian-American Working Group on the Future of Russian-American relations, supported by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He's a professor at HSE and a member of RIAC. He is also a researcher at the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies CCEIS. One of areas of expertise is US sanctions.

Egor Prokhin, Егор Прохин

Egor Prokhin is an expert at the CCEIS. He was educated in America where he went to Yale School of Management ¹⁰. Outside academia, Prokhin consults Russian and Chinese companies and works in the field of risk and business management.

Sources