First edition of the European Expert Talks on Russia

On 28–29 April 2026, SCEEUS and the European Union’s Foreign Policy Instruments convened a closed roundtable in Stockholm on Russia’s escalating digital shutdowns and what they mean for European security, policy, internet governance, and the future of Russian independent media. What stood out most over the two days was how interconnected these issues have become. Questions that are often treated separately – cyber policy, platform restrictions, censorship infrastructure, the resilience of independent media, and European security – are in reality deeply intertwined. Bringing together participants from different policy and professional communities made it possible to examine Russia’s growing digital authoritarianism from multiple angles at once, rather than through isolated area of expertise. We all left with a stronger shared understanding of the challenges ahead, and many expressed the need to continue these conversations in similar formats going forward.

The European Expert Talks on Russia is a series of events conevning European actors and relevant expertise on challangfes and threats posed by the Russian Federation. It is financed by the Euroepan Union and implemented through a project team linked to SCEEUS, headed by Stefan Ingvarsson.