Ms. Lukonina is the senior research fellow in the Center for Asia-Pacific Studies at IMEMO, and is an associate professor at the Russian State University for the Humanities. Previously, she was a scientific fellow at the Center for Chinese Language Studies at the Military University of the Defense Ministry of the Russian Federation (2007-2011). Ms. Lukonina specializes in the study of the internal policies of China and Chinese social networks. She received her M.A. from the Military University of the Defense Ministry of the Russian Federation.