Maxime Audinet

Maxime Audinet is a Research Fellow at IRSEM and a specialist of Russian politics. He holds a PhD in Political science and Slavic studies from the University of Paris Nanterre (2020) and a MPhil in political theory from the Doctoral School of Sciences Po Paris (2014).

His research focuses on the role of influence in the foreign policy of authoritarian states, following on from his PhD work on Russia’s public diplomacy (cultural diplomacy and international media). He takes a particular interest in the actors and practices of Russia’s information influence in the post-Soviet space, in Europe, and in sub-Saharan Africa. In 2021, he published a book on the Russian international news network RT (Un média d’influence d’Etat : Enquête sur la chaîne russe RT, INA), which received the Research on Journalism book award from the Assises du journalisme de Tours (2022) and was reissued in 2024.

He is also an Associate Research Fellow at the Centre de recherches pluridisciplinaires multilingues (CRPM) of Paris Nanterre University (where he lectures at the department of Slavic studies), at the Centre d'analyse et de recherche interdisciplinaires sur les médias (CARISM) of Paris-II Panthéon-Assas University, and in the Russia Program of the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies of the George Washington University (IERES, Eliott School of International Affairs). In 2023, he cofounded the research collective CORUSCANT, the European branch of the Russia Program (https://coruscant.therussiaprogram.org/manifesto_en).