Irina Kustova

Irina Kustova holds  PhD cum laude from the School of International Studies, University of Trento, and an MA in European Studies from Maastricht University (2009).  Defended in April 2015, her PhD thesis addresses the problems of increasing politicisation and limited institutionalisation in EU–Russia gas relations from the point of view of domestic institutional factors. Irina has been a trainee at the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (2014) and at the Delegation of the European Union to Russia (2008). During her PhD, Irina has also spent periods as a visiting research fellow at the King’s College London (2012) and the Energy Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (2012).
Trained as an economist and lawyer during BA studies, she advocates an interdisciplinary approach that encompasses regulatory studies, energy policy analysis and energy law to address the current regulatory and policy transformations. Her expertise lies in the area of the European gas market, energy governance, EU integration, and Russian oil and gas sectors. She has published academic articles, reviews, book chapters, and policy comments in English, Italian, and Russian.
Currently, she works at the Energy Charter Secretariat on the ECT transit provisions and on aspects of regional electricity cooperation in South Caucasus.
She can be contacted at irina.kustova{at}yahoo.com

Current position: Transit, Directorate, Energy Charter Secretariat, Brussels