Nikita Kuklin

In 2017, he graduated cum laude from RUDN University (Patrice Lumumba University) with a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations. In the same year, he completed an internship at the Department of New Challenges and Threats of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation. He subsequently earned his Master’s degree in International Relations, also cum laude, from RUDN University in 2019.

From 2019 to 2022, Dr. Kuklin pursued his doctoral studies at the Department of Theory and History of International Relations, RUDN University. In 2022, he successfully defended his PhD dissertation entitled “The Development of the Conceptual Foundations of Indonesia’s Foreign Policy (1945–2021)”.

His academic career includes diverse teaching and research appointments. From September 2017 to April 2018, he served as a Lecturer in the Department of European Studies and Integration at the National Research Institute of World Civilizations. From September 2018 to June 2019, he worked as an Assistant Lecturer in the Department of Russian as a Foreign Language at the Moscow State University of Food Production, where he was also responsible for educational cooperation with Indonesia. From December 2019 to July 2022, he served as a Teaching Assistant at the Department of Theory and History of International Relations, RUDN University, followed by his appointment as a Lecturer in the Department of General History at RUDN University from July 2022 to January 2023. Between 2019 and 2023, he combined his teaching responsibilities with supervision of student research projects at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, RUDN University. At present, Dr. Kuklin is also a lecturer in MGIMO’s English-taught Master’s program, “Political Economy of the ASEAN–Russia Strategic Partnership.”

Dr. Kuklin has participated as a speaker at numerous national and international academic conferences and is the author of more than 50 scholarly publications and expert commentaries focusing on Indonesian foreign policy and ASEAN studies. His work has appeared in peer-reviewed leading journals indexed in international and Russian citation databases, including Scopus and Web of Science. He has authored four chapters in major academic monographs and contributed articles to the Great Russian Encyclopedia. In 2023, he published his single-authored monograph, Conceptual Foundations of Indonesia’s Foreign Policy, with the leading Russian academic publisher Aspect Press.

His research interests broadly encompass Indonesia’s foreign policy, the history of Indonesian diplomacy, ASEAN studies, Indonesia’s domestic political landscape and political culture, as well as political Islam, religion, and Islamic organizations in Indonesia. Dr. Kuklin is fluent in Indonesian, English, French, and Russian.

In 2025, Dr. Kuklin delivered two online public lectures (via Zoom) to students of the International Relations Study Program. The first lecture, on 21 November 2025, was entitled “Russia’s Foreign Policy and Great Powers: The Geostrategic Importance of Indonesia.” The second lecture, delivered on 1 December 2025, was entitled “Islam and Diplomatic Relations between Indonesia and Russia.”