Full name:
Kurylev Konstantin

Date of Birth:
5 July 1975

Citizenship:
Russia

Categories:
Propagandists

Professional field/official position/biography:

Professor and Deputy Head of the Department of Theory and History of International Relations, Peoples' Friendship University of Russia (RUDN) named after Patrice Lumumba, propagandist, member of the “propaganda teams” that visited the territories of Ukraine occupied by the Russian Federation.

Born in 1975 in the city of Vidnoe, Moscow Region.

In 1999 he graduated from the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia, in 2002 he defended his Ph.D. thesis, in 2016 - a doctoral thesis.

Since 1999, he worked at the Moscow Regional Institute of Higher Socio-Economic Education, since 2001 - at the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia. Since 2003 - Associate Professor, and since 2018 - Professor of the Department of Theory and History of International Relations (TIIR) of RUDN University, Deputy Head of the Department of TIIR for Research.

In addition, Konstantin Kurylev is actively involved in international academic activities, in particular:

• Since 2011 – Member of the University Association for Contemporary European Studies (UACES), London, UK.
• Since 2017 - Member of the International Studies Association (ISA), San Francisco, USA.
• Since 2018 - Member of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES), USA.

He is also director of the Center for Post-Soviet Studies, president of the Association for Baltic-Black Sea Studies, and editor-in-chief of the journal “Post-Soviet Studies”.

As can be seen from the very titles of his current positions, the main topics of his “scientific interests” are “Russian foreign policy”, “international relations in the post-Soviet space” (and, above all, relations with Ukraine), “geopolitics”, as well as “ Eurasianism ” in its various forms.
Author of more than 150 scientific and educational works.

Accused of:

Propaganda of the aggressive and predatory war of the Russian Federation against Ukraine - using his official position.

Kurylev's public speeches on the topic of the war, and of Ukraine in general, of relations with the West, of geopolitics, are most often filled with a set of clichés that is standard for Kremlin propaganda. For instance, in his commentary for the official and odious Russian edition of Izvestia in June 2022, Konstantin Kurylev stated that “Russia’s relations with NATO have passed the point of no return,” and tried to scare Ukraine with the fact that “the more actively it interacts with NATO, the more its territory is shrinking”, used primitive clichés like “the agony of the Kiev regime waging war to the last Ukrainian”, etc.

In other interviews, he recounted the official Kremlin “justifications” for the full-scale aggression of the Russian Federation in February 2022, in particular, stating the following in this context:

• "Projecting a military threat against Russia from Ukraine was unacceptable for us."
• "There was an infringement of Russian residents."
• “The process of frenzied nationalism, bordering on racism, could no longer be tolerated, and the first reaction was in 2014 in Crimea, when the Russian people living there went to a referendum.”
• "..The glorification of Nazism and fascism, the heirs of Bandera, Shukhevych and Konovalets ..".

A kind of "culmination" of Kurylev's propaganda activities (at least as at April 2023) can be considered his speech with political propaganda "lectures" in June 2022, together with other "teachers" of the department of TIMO RUDN University (D. Degterev and V. Danilov) "as part of propaganda teams in the units of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and in the troops of the National Guard of the Russian Federation participating in the special military operation, as well as in hospitals." According to information openly posted on the RUDN website , this event was organized by the so called “Knowledge Society” (the chairman of the supervisory board of which is the odious Sergei Kiriyenko).

If the pro-Kremlin narratives disseminated by Kurylev in interviews and lectures/seminars at the university and in scientific articles could still be hypothetically called some kind of "biased expert position", then his direct visits to the territories of Ukraine occupied by Russia as part of "agitation brigades" to "brainwash" the soldiers of the Russian occupation troops, of course, puts him and his "colleagues" on a par with open Russian propagandists, such as odious TV presenters or "military correspondents". At the same time, it is the status of a scientist and teacher of the humanities at one of the leading Russian universities that makes this act of Kurylev especially cynic.

Given the above, it can be confidently asserted that Konstantin Kurylev is an open propagandist for the Kremlin and, thus, an indirect accomplice in the war crimes of Vladimir Putin's regime. The degree of his guilt in such crimes should be established as part of the investigation of these crimes, while at least any international academic, business and other contacts with this person should be excluded.

Links and materials

Comment by K. Kurylev for Izvestia media in June 2022

Interview of K. Kurylev to YouTube channel ” Rezonans Asia »

RUDN website news feed

Closed access

Home / Personas / Kurylev Konstantin