About

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Samantha de Bendern is a Paris based British writer and  journalist focussed on Russia, Ukraine and International Defence and Security.  She is currently an Associate Fellow at the Royal Institute of International Affairs at Chatham House, a Senior Consultant for EU-Russia relations and Financial Crime at the Conflict Studies Research Centre, and a news commentator on the French Television Channel LCI.  Samantha is a regular contributor The Guardian newspaper, France 24 and BBC news programs.

In June 2025 Samantha launched a geopolitics podcast in French with tv co-commentator and international relations professor Elizabeth Sheppard Sellam

Previously Samantha worked for the European Commission in Moscow, NATO HQ in Brussels and a number of international financial institutions.   

She is bilingual in English and French and speaks fluent Russian, Spanish and Italian as well as some Czech, Ukrainian and German.