PhD Maria Domańska
Deputy Head of the OSW Russia Department. She specializes in Russian domestic politics, including the formal and informal aspects of the political system, relations within the ruling elite, state ideology, politics of memory, domestic determinants of the Kremlin’s foreign policy. Between 2006–2015 she worked in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (including as the Head of Political Section in the Embassy of Poland in Moscow between 2012–2015).
She collaborates with Polish and international research centres, including the Mieroszewski Centre, the Pilecki Institute, the Stockholm Centre for Eastern European Studies, the Zentrum Liberale Moderne, the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, and the Centre for European Policy Analysis. Her analytical articles have been published by NEW Online, New Eastern Europe, Riddle Russia, Carnegie Europe, and others.
She was a research fellow at the SWP (Berlin, October–November 2022) and at CEPA (Washington DC, April–June 2024).
- Domestic politics in Russia
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Rising tensions within Russia’s ruling elite: a mounting challenge for the Kremlin, OSW Commentary 731, 18 May 2026
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Russia’s vulnerabilities. How the West can exploit them and win the systemic war, OSW Report, March 2026 (co-author)
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The Kremlin’s Loyal Praetorians. Russia’s ruling elite in wartime Putinism, OSW Point of View, February 2026
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When war becomes a national idea: Russia’s strategy towards Europe, New Eastern Europe, No 1-2, 2026
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The Great Russian Firewall. The Kremlin’s ultimate crackdown on internet freedom, OSW Report, December 2025 (co-author)
- The Making of a Homo Putinicus. Fascist 'Patriotic Education' in Putin's Russia, [in:] I. Garner, T. Kuzio (eds.), Russia and Modern Fascism. New Perspectives on the Kremlin's War Against Ukraine, Stuttgart 2025
- The Russian Challenge. A Polish-German expert paper for a new Russia policy, LibMod-OSW Policy Paper, 18 December 2024 (co-author)
- The unwomanly face of Putinism, Riddle Russia, 13 December 2024
- Lost in Translation: Western Misconceptions about Putin’s Russia, CEPA Report, 16 October 2024
- Russia in the trenches of cognitive warfare, New Eastern Europe, 9 September 2024 (co-author)
- Presidential pseudo-election in Russia: what does it tell us about Putin’s regime? “New Eastern Europe”, 12 March 2024
- Russia after two years of full-scale war. Fragile stability and growing aggressiveness, OSW Report, February 2024 (co-author)
- Fighting ‘hostile’ memory: the vandalism of Polish monuments in Russia, OSW Commentary, 15 November 2023
- Russia in exile. Support for Russian political migrants as an instrument to increase European security, OSW Commentary, 15 November 2023 (co-author)
- The calm after the storm. Russia following Prigozhin’s mutiny, OSW Report, October 2023 (co-author)
- Caught in the jaws of the ‘russkiy mir’. Ukraine’s occupied regions a year after their annexation, OSW Commentary, 11 October 2023 (co-author)
- Putin’s Wunderwaffe: The Bugbear of Russia’s Collapse, Zentrum Liberale Moderne, 20 September 2023,
- The new wave of Russian political emigration to Germany. Organisations, activities, prospects, OSW Report, July 2023,
- Russian Civil Society Actors in Exile. An underestimated agent of change, SWP Comment 2023/C 26, 11 May 2023,
- From domestic abuse to Wagner’s sledgehammer: war as a product of systemic violence in Russia, “New Eastern Europe” Issue 2/2023,
- The fetish of Russia’s stability: an intelligent weapon against the West, “New Eastern Europe”, 24 March 2023,
- Putin’s neo-totalitarian project: the current political situation in Russia, OSW Commentary, 17 February 2023,
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Reinventing Russia: How the West should prepare for the post-Putin period, Zentrum Liberale Moderne Policy Paper, 26 January 2023
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Disloyalty is punishable: Russians hide their true feelings about the war, “New Eastern Europe”, 17 June 2022
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The Myth of the Great Patriotic War and Russia’s Foreign Policy, in: A. Legucka, R. Kupiecki (eds.), Disinformation, Narratives and Memory Politics in Russia and Belarus, Routledge, 2022
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Handling the Unthinkable. Lessons to Learn from Ukraine Invasion, in: I. Hegedűs, E. Uszkiewicz (eds.), The Future of Democracy. Strengthening Liberal Values, Institutions and Procedures at Global, European, Regional and National Levels, Hungarian Europe Society, 2022
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The Role of Applied History in Countering Security Threats: Recent historical lessons, in: European Security How Policy-Relevant is History?, Koerber Stiftung History Forum, April 2022
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War dictatorship: power and society in Russia, OSW Commentary, 22 March 2022, (co-author)
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Russia: stable dictatorship – but for how long?, “New Eastern Europe”, 8 February 2022
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The Religion of Victory, the Cult of a Superpower. The Myth of the Great Patriotic War in the Contemporary Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation, Institute of National Remembrance Review 3, 2021-2022
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How historical narratives serve authoritarian interests: the politics of memory in Putin’s Russia, in: A. Balcer (ed.) Putin’s regime and the politics of memory: Czech, Polish and Russian perspectives, “New Eastern Europe Report”, December 2021
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Russia 2021: Consolidation of a dictatorship, OSW Commentary, 8 December 2021
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The forbidden theme of repression: History in the service of authoritarian politics, “New Eastern Europe”, 30 November 2021
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Forward, into the past! Russia's politics of memory in the service of 'eternal' authoritarianism, OSW Report, November 2021 (co-author)
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Duma non-elections. A carnival of dirty tricks, “New Eastern Europe”, 27 September 2021
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The great Russian firewall: A dream of late Putinism, New Eastern Europe, 22 July 2021
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How the EU Can Engage Russian Civil Society, “Strategic Europe”, 29 June 2021
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Tightening the screws. Putin's repressive laws, OSW Commentary, 18 February 2021
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Russian digital authoritarianism at the time of COVID-19, “New Eastern Europe”, Issue 5/2020
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Миф Великой Отечественной войны как инструмент внешней политики России, „Sprawy Międzynarodowe” Vol. 72 no. 4 (2019)
- Putinism after Putin. The deep structures of Russian authoritarianism, OSW Studies, October 2019
- State of the Russian Economy and its Influence on Putin's Politics at the 4th Term, in: A. Kudors, J. Hermanis (eds.), The Russian Economy: Prospects for Putin 4.0, Centre for East European Policy Studies, Riga 2020
- “Everlasting Putin” and the reform of the Russian Constitution, OSW Commentary, 13 March 2020
- The myth of the Great Patriotic War as a tool of the Kremlin’s great power policy, OSW Commentary, 31 December 2019
- Gagging Runet, silencing society. ’Sovereign’ Internet in the Kremlin’s political strategy, OSW Commentary, 4 December 2019
- Fortress Kaliningrad. Ever closer to Moscow, OSW Report, 7 November 2019 (co-author)
- Putin for the fourth time. The state of and prospects for Russia (2018-2024), OSW Report, March 2018 (co-author)
- The Kremlin’s regional policy – a year of dismissing governors, OSW Commentary, 15 December 2017
- Putin for the fourth time. No vision, no hope, OSW Commentary, 13 December 2017
- Conflict-dependent Russia. The domestic determinants of the Kremlin's anti-western policy, OSW Point of View, November 2017
- Crisis in Russia. The degradation of the model of economic governance, OSW Studies, March 2017
- Kaliningrad Oblast 2016. The society, economy and army, OSW Report, December 2016 (co-author)
- Business under supervision – pathologies serving the system of power in Russia, OSW Commentary, 1 June 2016 (co-author)
- The consequences of the Western financial sanctions on the Russian economy, OSW Commentary, 24 March 2016 (co-author)
- Strangers among us. Non-governmental organisations in Russia, OSW Commentary, 29 September 2015 (co-author)
- Russia marks the 70th anniversary of the victory over Nazism: What significance does it have in an epoch of global confrontation?, OSW Commentary, 20 May 2015
- Perspektywy integracji eurazjatyckiej (Prospects of the Eurasian integration), www.nowadebata.pl, 6.07.2014
- Perspektywy integracji eurazjatyckiej. Zarys głównych problemów (Prospects of the Eurasian integration – outline of the main problems), in: J. Diec, A. Jach (ed.), Fenomen Rosji. Pamięć przeszłości i perspektywy rozwoju, Kraków 2014
- Perspektywy modernizacji w świetle założeń polityki zagranicznej Federacji Rosyjskiej (Prospects of Russia’s modernization in the context of its foreign policy principles), in: S. Bieleń (ed.), Bariery modernizacji Rosji, Warszawa 2014
- Uwarunkowania procesów integracyjnych i dezintegracyjnych na obszarze poradzieckim (Determinants of integration and disintegration processes in the post-Soviet area), Warszawa 2013
- Koncepcja tożsamościowa turkizmu w integracji państw poradzieckich (Turkism identity concept and the integration of the post-Soviet states), „Stosunki Międzynarodowe – International Relations” nr 47, 2013
- Rosja wobec światowego kryzysu finansowo-gospodarczego (Russia and the global financial-economic crisis), in: S. Bieleń (ed.), Rosja w procesach globalizacji, Warszawa 2013
- Polityka Republiki Białorusi wobec państw obszaru poradzieckiego (Policy of the Republic of Belarus towards the post-Soviet states), „Politeja” nr 1 (15), 2011