Leila Nazgul Seiitbek, is an exiled lawyer and anti-corruption and human rights advocate from the Kyrgyz Republic who was granted asylum in Austria in 2021. She is Chairwoman of Freedom for Eurasia, which documents and reports on human rights and corruption abuses in the former Soviet Republics of Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Thomas Mayne is a Research Fellow at the University of Oxford and a former Visiting Fellow at Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs. He is a former Senior Campaigner at the anti-corruption NGO Global Witness, where he was responsible for the group’s reports on Central Asia and Eurasia. He has authored a variety of reports on corruption and kleptocracy, and on the UK’s anti-money-laundering regulations. His most recent work analyzed the UK’s Unexplained Wealth Order legislation and the corrupt property purchases of Uzbekistan’s Gulnara Karimova.

Nurul Rakhimbek is a political activist and researcher from Kazakhstan living in exile, in Ukraine since 2015 and in the US since 2022. Nurul has worked with the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and International Republican Institute (IRI) on programs for promoting democracy in Central Asia and Ukraine, and has done pioneering work in establishing the first election observation institution in his country. Since 2004, he has worked as a freelance author of many publications on democracy in Kazakhstani and Ukrainian media. He currently represents the Kazakh Civil Society Coalition in the United States and his recent work and research is focused on asset recovery and sanctions evasion. 

Sebastien Peyrouse

Director of the Central Asia Program and research Professor, IERES, George Washington University. His main areas of expertise are political systems in Central Asia, economic and social issues, Islam and religious minorities, and Central Asia’s geopolitical positioning toward China, India, and South Asia.