John Lough
Special Situations Advisor
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Biography
John Lough is a geopolitical expert with a background in Russia and Eastern Europe whose 35-year career has spanned the worlds of business, diplomacy and research. He advises Astraea on thought leadership, as well as offering geopolitical context and perspective where relevant to clients’ needs.
John is an Associate Fellow of the Russia & Eurasia Programme at Chatham House (since 2009) and is a regular commentator on Russian and Ukrainian affairs. He is also Senior Research Fellow at the New Eurasian Strategies Centre (NEST), a recently established think tank focused on the future of Russia, where he leads the Centre’s work on foreign policy issues.
He spent three years with Highgate (2021-2024), a leading London-based strategy consulting firm, and was a partner in the company before moving to NEST. He ran his own consultancy business for five years advising clients on political and investment risk in Russia, Ukraine and other countries of the former Soviet Union. From 2008 to 2016, he ran the Russia/CIS practice of BGR Gabara, a public affairs consultancy. From 2003 to 2008, he was an international affairs adviser at TNK-BP, Russia’s third largest oil company at the time.
John spent six years with NATO managing information programmes aimed at Central and Eastern Europe, including a posting to Moscow where he set up NATO’s Information Office in Russia. He was the first Alliance official to be permanently based in Russia (1995-1998). During this time, he developed media and public affairs programmes designed to contribute to better understanding of NATO and its policies in Russian society and was NATO’s spokesman in Russia.
Before joining NATO, he was a senior lecturer at the Soviet Studies (later Conflict Studies) Research Centre in the UK, writing on a wide range of defence, security and foreign policy issues related to the former Soviet Union.
He studied German and Russian literature at Cambridge University. He is the author of ‘Germany’s Russia Problem’ (Manchester University Press 2021).