Ilya Yablokov was born in Tomsk, Russia, graduated with distinction from his BA in history at Tomsk State University and his MA in Nationalism Studies at Central European University (Budapest). In 2014 Ilya finished his PhD in Russian studies at the University of Manchester (UK). The spheres of Ilya’s research interests are the state disinformation strategies in Central and Eastern Europe, with a particular focus on the Russian government, as well as the sociology of news production. As Lecturer in Digital Journalism and Disinformation and founder of the University of Sheffield’s Disinformation Research cluster Ilya studies how the Kremlin uses disinformation and conspiracy theories to shape social cohesion and influence public opinion across Russia and beyond.
After the war in Ukraine started, Ilya spent months exploring the ways of support that are required by Russian media professionals and finding ways of resisting the Kremlin-led disinformation. Ilya currently mentors several grassroots initiatives that explore and combat Kremlin-led computational propaganda as well as takes part in supporting media initiatives to make Russian exiled media more sustainable and able to find the way through the state-led disinformation. The war also catalyzed Ilya's interest in dismantling how Kremlin's disinformation industry works. The result is his upcoming book: Words that kill: Inside Kremlin's Disinformation Industry currently under review at Princeton University Press.
Ilya’s most recent monograph Russia Today and Conspiracy Theories: People, Power, Politics on RT (with Precious Chatterje-Doody) explores how Russian international broadcaster uses traditional and new media environments to spread disinformation on subnational, national and international levels. This work was spawned by Ilya’s previous research into conspiracy theories in Russia. His monograph Fortress Russia: conspiracy theories in the post-Soviet world (Polity 2018) studied how political elites in post-Soviet Russia use conspiracy theories for political purposes and to boost social cohesion under Vladimir Putin. Its Russian version had three editions and was included in a longlist of best non-fiction books of 2020.
Ilya has published research in leading academic journals in the field of media and Russian studies, including Journalism, European Journal of Communication, Russian Review, Politics, Participations and Democratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization.
Ilya’s media appearances include CNN, BBC World Service, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Forbes, Politico, Eurozine, Al-Jazeera, Meduza, Open Democracy Russia, The Moscow Times and The Conversation.
New Publications:
Yablokov, I., Moen-Larsen, N., & Blakkisrud, H. (2025). Meaning-Making in Times of Trouble: COVID-19 Conspiracies on Russian Telegram. Problems of Post-Communism, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1080/10758216.2025.2591711
Yablokov, I., & Gatov, V. (2025). Broadcasting through the (New) Iron Curtain: Practices, Challenges, and Legacies of Russia’s Independent Media in Exile. Journalism Studies, 1–18. [Open access]