Irina Khaldarova is a PhD student at the Department of Social Research, Media and Communication Studies, University of Helsinki, Finland. She has a Master’s degree in Political Communication (Cardiff University, School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies).

She currently studies the 2014 Ukrainian crisis in Russian television news. In addition, she also worked in different research projects of the University of Helsinki studying web-based communication in political and media spheres. Earlier she has studied political science in the OSCE Academy in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.