Central and Eastern Europe

Jörg Forbrig is managing director for the Transatlantic Trusts, GMF’s long-term programming to assist civil society and bolster democracy in Central and Eastern Europe. Based in GMF’s Berlin office, he leads the “Engaging Central Europe” program, the Fund for Belarus Democracy, and the “Ukraine: Resilience and Recovery” initiative. He also works closely with the Balkan Trust for Democracy and the Black Sea Trust for Regional Cooperation.  

Forbrig’s analytical and policy work focuses on the eastern-most member countries of the European Union and NATO, the EU's eastern and southeastern neighborhoods, and Russia. He has been published widely on democracy, civil society, and Central and Eastern European affairs, and is the author of Reclaiming Democracy (2007), Prospects for Democracy in Belarus (2006), and Revisiting Youth Political Participation (2005). He is also a regular contributor to major international media. 

Alina Inayeh is currently a non-resident fellow. She joined GMF in 2007 as the director of the Black Sea Trust for Regional Cooperation, a project dedicated to strengthening cooperation and fostering development in the Black Sea region. She is an active practitioner in the field of international development and democratization, having run the Freedom House office in Ukraine in 2004 and the NDI office in Russia in 2000-2003, with a focus on civic education and political processes. She has trained NGOs throughout Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union on issues related to NGO development and democratization. She was a leading civic activist in the 1990s in Romania and an active promoter of the NGO sector in the country.

Nicolas Bouchet is a visiting fellow based in GMF’s Berlin office, working closely with GMF’s Transatlantic Trusts in its efforts to support democracy and civil society in Eastern Europe. He conducts research on EU and US democracy promotion, with a particular focus on Russia and Eurasia (especially the countries of the EU’s Eastern Partnership). His research interests also include US foreign policy, democratization, and civil society.

Daniel Hegedüs is a GMF regional director, Transatlantic Trusts Central Europe focused on Central Europe. He writes and speaks extensively on populism and democratic backsliding in Central and Eastern Europe, and the European and foreign affairs of the Visegrad countries. He is frequently quoted in outlets such as AFP, the Financial Times, the New York Times, Euractiv, EU Observer and Der Spiegel. He has studied political science, history, and European law at the Eötvös Loránd University Budapest and Humboldt University in Berlin.

Olena Prokopenko is a senior fellow at GMF. She formerly managed Eastern Neighborhood programs at the European Endowment for Democracy in Brussels and served as a development adviser at the Danish embassy in Kyiv. 

Prokopenko previously chaired international relations at RPR Coalition, Ukraine’s largest civil society platform, and advised Ukraine’s finance minister on donor relations. She served as a civil society expert for the UN Development Programme and the Council of Europe, and worked as a government relations manager at Hill+Knowlton Strategies.

Prokopenko is a co-founder of the Transatlantic Task Force for Ukraine and a government relations trainer at the Kyiv School of Economics. Her analysis of Russia’s war in Ukraine and Ukraine’s reform progress is regularly featured intop international media, including the BBC, Bloomberg, MSNBC, Al Jazeera, TIME magazine, Newsweek, and Le Monde.

Prokopenko is a lawyer by training and an alumna of the US State Department’s Edmund S. Muskie Graduate Fellowship Program. She holds a master’s degree in political science from Western Illinois University.