Doctor in History (EHESS), co-director of the Franco-Belarusian Centre (Minsk). Specialist on the studies of nationalities in the former USSR / Russia, he is an associate researcher at the Centre of geopolitical research and analysis at the University Paris -VIII, at the Centre for Russian, Caucasian and Central European Studies(EHESS / CNRS), the Centre for Turkish, Ottoman, Balkan and Central Asian Studies (EHESS / CNRS / Collège de France). Currently working on the relationship between ideology and religion in the USSR at the time of Khrushchev, he works on the issues of Islam in Russia and has published numerous articles, including “Russia and Islamic terrorism”, Questions international 75 (2015); “From nomads to monads: patriotism, citizenship and sub-national ideologies in a multiethnic Russia,” Herodotus 146-147 (2012); “Tatars and Bashkirs: a mirror in history,” Ab Imperio 2 (2007).