Demyan is a published researcher, writer, and advisor on international relations, human rights, and security policy. Demyan is currently a Senior Analyst and Acting Team Lead at Global Affairs Canada, leading on key foreign policy priorities and global trends. He has previously worked on Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, and Mauritania at Global Affairs Canada. Demyan has worked at the United Nations headquarters in New York, five government departments in Canada, NATO Association of Canada, in academic positions at Western University and Carleton University, and with other organizations. 

While at Global Affairs Canada, Demyan helped create the Ukraine Strategic Taskforce in response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, spearheaded Canada’s co-sponsorship of a landmark Human Rights Council resolution on Belarus that established a UN investigation into human rights violations and supported the International Accountability Platform for Belarus, helped shape Canada’s approach to the aftermath of Russia’s aggression in eastern Ukraine and illegal annexation of Crimea, investigated terrorism and security in North Africa, led on researching the geopolitical impacts of COVID-19, and built several sanctions regimes responding to various grave violations of human rights, sovereignty, and territorial integrity.

Demyan is also the President and Founder of The Plakhov Group – an international affairs research organization specializing in Eastern European and Transatlantic geopolitical analysis.

His recent publications include NATO Sanctions Policy, Russia’s Constitutional Changes, NATO’s Partnership with the UN: Empowerment through UNSCR 1325 and SDG 5, and a book review of The CSCE and the end of the Cold War: diplomacy, societies and human rights 1972–1990.

He has an MA in European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies from Carleton University, and a BA Honours Specialization in Political Science from Western University and the University of Copenhagen.

Policy Primer: Human Security in the Arctic: A Review of the Russian Literature, by Demyan Plakhov, January 2022

Policy Primer: NATO Sanctions Policy, by Demyan Plakhov, July 2021