Taline Ter Minassian is a professor of the contemporary history of Russia and the Caucasus at INALCO (Paris). She is co-director of the Observatory of Post-Soviet States. She is an author of history books on the Soviet Union and the Caucasus, biographies and a novel; this autumn she is publishing: Sur l’échiquier du Grand Jeu, Agents secrets et aventuriers (Nouveau Monde).