Associate professor Katri Pynnöniemi holds Mannerheim Chair of Russian Security Studies at the University of Helsinki and the Finnish National Defense University.

Pynnöniemi has published widely on the system change in Russia and on Russian foreign and security policy. Her current research deals with Russian strategy, in particular strategic deception and conceptualization of threats towards Russia in Russian security policy.

Pynnöniemi leads the working group of the Mannerheim professorship devoted on study of Russia’s strategic thought and its implications for the European security. She is also member of the Russia study group at the National Defence University, responsible for teaching and supervision of research on Russian strategy.

Previously Pynnöniemi has worked as a senior researcher at the Finnish Institute for International Affairs. She has been a visiting researcher at the University of Tarto, Estonia (2012), Swedish Institute of International Affairs, Stockholm (2016) and the Wilson Center, Kennan Institute, Washington D.C. (2017). She is a member of The Scientific Advisory Board for Defence (MATINE).

Pynnöniemi has published widely on the system change in Russia and on Russian foreign and security policy. Her current research deals with Russia’s strategic thinking, focusing in particular to narratives shaping public perception on Russia’s war against Ukraine, Russian military thought and analysis of military threats. Her latest publications include co-authored OA article Understanding Russia’s war against Ukraine: Political, eschatological and cataclysmic dimensions, Journal of Strategic Studies (2024), edited book Nexus of Patriotism and Militarism in Russia: Quest for internal unity (Helsinki University Press, 2021), co-authored article Perceptions of hybrid war in Russia: Means, targets and objectives identified in the Russian debate (Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 2020); Russia’s National Security Strategy: Analysis of Conceptual Evolution (Journal of Slavic Military Studies, 2018).