Grigorij Mesežnikov

Grigorij Mesežnikov is a Slovak political analyst, researcher, civic activist and president of a think tank.

He was born in 1958 in the former Soviet Union. He studied philosophy and socio-political sciences at the Faculty of Philosophy of Moscow University. In 1981 he and his wife moved to Slovakia. After arriving in Czechoslovakia he was unemployed for a long time and later worked as a warehouse labourer. In November 1989 he co-authored a declaration by Soviet citizens living in Bratislava in support of the demands of Public Against Violence (VPN).

From 1983 to 1993 he worked at Comenius University in Bratislava and later at the Institute of Political Science of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. In 1997 he was one of the founders of the research centre Institute for Public Affairs (IVO), and in 1999 he became its president. Among other things, IVO aims to promote the principles of democracy and the values of an open society in Slovakia.

He completed professional fellowships in Sweden, the United States, Israel and the Palestinian Autonomous Territories, and Taiwan. He worked at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna and at the Department of Political Science of National Taiwan University in Taipei.

He is the editor and author of several dozen books, including all editions of Súhrnné správy o Slovensku (Global Reports on Slovakia). He co-authored the chapters on Slovakia in the Nations in Transit report by the independent organisation Freedom House and in the Bertelsmann Transformation Index published by the Bertelsmann Stiftung in Germany.

He was an external contributor to Radio Free Europe in Slovakia and is a regular contributor to Czech Television and Czech Radio. He is also a frequent contributor and commentator for many media outlets covering the political situation in Slovakia.

He has published academic studies in monographs, edited volumes and journals in Slovakia and abroad. His work addresses the development of party systems and party politics, the broader context of social transformation in Slovakia and Central Europe, nationalism, extremism, antisemitism and external hybrid threats.

He actively participates in public discourse, where he consistently defends pro-democratic and pro-European values. He was one of the few who foresaw Russia's intention to invade Ukraine in the spring of 2022. He also focuses on Ukraine and on assistance to Ukrainian refugees.

Because of his views on political developments in Slovakia, he has been the target of verbal attacks and personal invective from a number of Slovak politicians. In February 2008 he was also physically assaulted in the street in a racially motivated attack.