IRSD-KHID-RHID

Biography

Dr Laetitia Spetschinsky holds a PhD on Russian foreign policy from the Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain), where she began her career in 2000 with the creation of a chair dedicated to EU-Russia relations.

She teaches master-level courses on the geopolitics of Russia and Eurasia both on-site and online at UCLouvain and IE university in Madrid. In addition, she has contributed to EU diplomat training programmes, Jean Monnet modules and NATO training days. Between 2024 and 2026, she was also an associate researcher with the Austrian Institute for International Affairs (oiip) in Vienna, with which she collaborated on a policy analysis of Russia’s evolving international posture.

She has lived and worked in Brussels, Rome, Addis Abeba, Vienna and Madrid, an itinerary that has deeply informed her understanding of international relations in practice. She combines academic teaching with independent consultancy and geopolitical master classes reaching media and businesses, as well as industrial and financial communities across Europe. She has worked with partners including the European Commission, EY, D’Ieteren, the FEDIL, Elston Consulting, Banque Degroof and the Société royale belge des ingénieurs et industriels.

Expertise

Russian foreign policy
Post-Soviet geopolitics
EU-Russia relations
European neighbourhood policy
Russia’s strategic environment
Russia’s domestic politics, economy and influence strategies

Publications

« Le grand remplacement des élites en Russie », Desk Russie, 12 mai 2024. https://desk-russie.eu/2024/05/12/le-grand-remplacement-des-elites-en-russie.html

“Russia 2024. Making or Breaking the System”, Trend Report 2, Austrian Institute for International Affairs (oiip), Vienna, January 2024. https://www.oiip.ac.at/cms/media/trend-report-laetitia-spetschinsky-3.pdf

Europe-Russie : chroniques d’une rupture annoncée (2023), Louvain-la-Neuve, Presses universitaires de Louvain, 260 p. https://pul.uclouvain.be/book/?GCOI=29303100100330

“In the Israel-Hamas war, Russia takes the ridge road”, Policy Analysis 9/2023, Austrian Institute for International Affairs (oiip), Vienna, November 2023. https://www.oiip.ac.at/publikation/in-the-israel-hamas-war-russia-takes-the-ridge-road/

« La Russie et l’Occident depuis le 11 septembre 2001 : de la coopération tactique à la confrontation stratégique », La Revue Générale, 2021/3, pp.47-55.

“Post-Soviet or Post-Colonial? The relations between Russia and Georgia after 1991”, in “Far Away and yet so close. Former colonial Powers and the management of political crises in their former colonies”, European Review of International Studies, vol. 1, no. 3 (2014).

« Russie et Union européenne. Un partenariat stratégique inachevé », dans Questions internationales – La documentation française, n°57, septembre 2012.

“Belgium-Russia”, EU-Russia Watch du Centre for EU-Russia Studies (University of Tartu), mars 2012.

Une politique étrangère à l’épreuve de la transition. Contribution à l’étude de la politique russe à l’égard de l’Union européenne (1992–2000), (2011), Bruxelles, P.I.E.-Peter Lang, 317 p. https://www.peterlang.com/document/1044103

DE WILDE D’ESTMAEL T., SPETSCHINSKY L. (eds.) (2004), La politique étrangère russe et l’Europe. Enjeux d’une proximité, Bruxelles, P.I.E.-Peter Lang, 256 p. https://www.peterlang.com/document/1097007

In the press

Belgian media – recurring analyst on Russia-Ukraine and EU-Russia affairs

Diploweb – Podcast Planisphère : « La Sibérie sauvera-t-elle la Russie ? » https://www.diploweb.com/Planisphere-La-Siberie-sauvera-t-elle-la-Russie-Avec-L-Spetschinsky.html

RTS (Radio Télévision Suisse) – Tout un monde, 25 August 2025: portrait of Sergei Lavrov