Mark Galeotti is a scholar of Russian security with a career spanning academia, government and business, a prolific author and frequent media commentator. He heads the Mayak Intelligence consultancy and is an Honorary Professor at University College London's School of Slavonic and East European Studies as well as holding fellowships with RUSI and the Institute of International Relations Prague. He has been Professor of Global Affairs at New York University, a Senior Research Fellow at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and a Visiting Professor at Rutgers-Newark and the Moscow State Institute of International Relations.

Angel García Pinto was born in Madrid in 1968. He attended University in the Faculty of Fine Arts (Madrid) and worked for Spanish newspapers for 15 years, primarily creating portraits. In recent years, he has specialized in historical and military historical subjects.