This blog's author, Dr Mark Galeotti has been researching Russian history and security issues since the late 1980s. Educated at Cambridge University and the LSE, he is now Clinical Professor of Global Affairs at New York University's Center for Global Affairs and an associate member of NYU's History and Russian & Slavic Studies departments. Until 2008, he was head of the History department at Keele University in the UK as well as director of its Organised Russian & Eurasian Crime Research Unit.

His books include the edited collections 'The Politics of Security in Modern Russia' (Ashgate), 'Russian & Soviet Organized Crime' (Ashgate) and 'Global Crime Today' (Routledge) and he is a regular contributor to Jane's Intelligence Review, Oxford Analytica and many other outlets. He writes a regular column, 'Siloviks & Scoundrels,' for the Moscow News.

Speaking on corruption on 'Russia's Rotten Core' panel at Chatham House, 2012

Speaking on corruption on The Big Think, 2012

Speaking about assassination of mob boss Usoyan on Varney & Co, Fox Business Network

Speaking on Russian espionage on Bloomberg TV, 2010

A friendlier Russia in 2013? A one-minute "geopolitical surprise" prediction for Wikistrat

On Bloomberg Surveillance, 26 March 2013, talking about Russia and Cyprus

THE POLITICS OF SECURITY IN MODERN RUSSIA (Ashgate, 2010)

"A much needed objective and balanced examination of the ways in which security has played and continues to play a central role in contemporary Russian politics. "

Contents: Introduction Mark Galeotti; Security Strategy: Sovereign Democracy and Great Power Aspirations Graeme Herd; The Politics of Security Mark Smith; Civil-Military Relations and the Security Apparatus Bettina Renz; Neither Reform Nor Modernisation: The Armed Forces Under and After Putin's Command Pavel Baev; Chechnya and Regional Security C.W. Blandy; Nuclear Arms Control After a Time of Troubles Stephen J. Cimbala; Terrorism, Crime and the Security Forces Mark Galeotti; The 'Security Economy' Julian Cooper; Russia's Unending Quest for Security Stephen Blank; Afterword Dmitri Trenin; Bibliography; Index

'Incisive, well-informed and disturbing.'
-- Edward Lucas, The Economist

VORY (A history of Russian organised crime)
RUSSIAN SECURITY & PARAMILITARY FORCES (a book for the Osprey Elite series)
CRIMINAL WORLD (long-term monograph project on organised crime worldwide and throughout history)