Speaker Biographies

Pavel Gussev is the CEO of the KazNIC Organisation, operator of Kazakhstan’s .KZ and .ҚАЗ domain name registries, a role he has held since September 1999. A systems engineer by training from the Moscow Aviation Institute, he previously served as CEO of RelcomSL IXP (1992–1999).

Paulius Vaina is currently a part of the „Connectivity for Central Asian“ project team, where he coordinates activities related to ICT policy and regulatory framework for Central Asian countries. His professional career is linked with the public sector institutions in Lithuania and the European Union. From 2002, Paulius was an employee of the Ministry of Transport and Communications (Lithuania), working with ICT policy files, including the Law on Electronic Communications and the Broadband strategy. In 2009, Paulius was serving as Attaché for Telecommunications and Post. During his term in Brussels, he was dealing with digital policy drafting and implementation, including electronic communications and roaming. In 2012, Paulius joined the Communications Regulatory Authority, the telecom regulator of Lithuania. Paulius has experience in working with international organisations like the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT), the OECD Network of Economic Regulators (NER), the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC), the RIPE NCC and others.

Dmitry Vetlugin is Director, Market Access and Sales for the Central Asia region at Eutelsat-OneWeb (pre-merger OneWeb), where he has been working since 2019.

Prior to joining OneWeb, Dmitry Vetlugin worked at VEON Group, where he was involved in legal and regulatory affairs in the positions of Chief Regulatory Officer for CIS countries and Legal Director of VEON's subsidiary in the Kyrgyz Republic.

For more than 5 years, Dmitry Vetlugin held the position of a member of the Board of Directors of the American Chamber of Commerce in the Kyrgyz Republic.

Dmitry was also a member of the Board of Directors of a backbone operator in the Kyrgyz Republic, where he was responsible for strategic management of the company's projects and development of relations with international operators.

Dmitry's professional experience in legal support and regulatory matters in the telecommunications industry spans over 20 years.

Dmitry has experience in various regulatory issues in the CIS countries (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Armenia and Georgia). Dmitriy takes an active part in the work of the bodies of the Regional Commonwealth of Communications.

Dmitry participated in drafting a number of legal acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, as well as interstate documents within the CIS on licensing, interaction of telecom operators with law enforcement agencies, and taxation of telecom operators.

Leonid got his Masters Degree in Computer Science at Peter the Great St.-Petersburg Polytechnic University.

In February 1995 joined “Business Petersburg” newspaper (owned by Bonnier Business Press of Sweden) and worked there until June 1998.

In July 1998 became a co-founder of ComNews Group. From that moment and up to now Leonid Konik is acting Editor-in-Chief of all media published by ComNews Group. From March 2015 he became a Group CEO as well.

Leonid Konik is also a Partner with ComNews Research, the research and consulting arm of ComNews group, and a constant moderator of various ICT forums in Russia and abroad, including the events produced by ComNews Conferences.

From November 2007 to May 2011, Leonid Konik acted as Tele2 Russia Advisory Board Member, and from December 2013 up to now, he has been the Transparency Council Member at Rostelecom.

In 2020, Leonid became a co-author of the book “Digital Transformation. Analysis, trends, global experience”.

Bayar Batjargal is an Internet Resource Analyst at APNIC. Before joining in 2022, he spent 17 years with Mobicom, Mongolia’s first mobile operator, working on IP network operations and network planning.

As a founding member of the Mongolia Network Operators Group (MNNOG), he is keenly interested in network measurement, learning from global best practices, and applying them locally. CAPIF offers him a great opportunity to share insights and strengthen regional collaboration.

Aleksandr Ilin, the CTO of MSK-IX. In 1998 he graduated from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, and in 1996 began working as a network engineer. He participated in the implementation of many projects aimed at developing the infrastructure of the Russian Internet and helped the industry to create national-scale Internet projects, the exchange of IP traffic between networks, and facilitated the globalisation of a distributed network of DNS servers to support root domain zones. Since 1997, Alexander has worked at ROSNIROS (the founder of the MSK-IX project). Since 2009, Alexander has been working at MSK-IX as the CTO.

Ivo Ivanov has been Chief Executive Officer at DE-CIX and Chair of the Board of the DE-CIX Group AG since 2022. Prior to this, Ivanov was Chief Operating Officer of DE-CIX and Chief Executive Officer of DE-CIX International, responsible for the global business activities of the leading Internet Exchange operator in the world. He has more than 20 years of experience in the regulatory, legal and commercial Internet environment. Ranked as one of the top 100 most influential professionals of the Telecom industry (Capacity Magazine’s Power 100 listing, 2021/2022/2023), Ivo is regularly invited to share his vision and thought leadership in various industry-leading conferences around the globe.

Konstantin Savin provides consulting services for the organisations of the telecom industry as a business partner of IXP Consulting Agency. He conducted more than 10 trainings on the implementation of Future Technologies in the CIS region, as well as conducted a study of potential areas of ITU-D work in 2023-2025 in 9 countries of the CIS region. Konstantin also supported establishment of IPv6 Councils in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.

Prior to that, Konstantin worked at GSMA (2011-2020) in positions ranging from Technical Consultant to Strategic Partnerships Manager. He also served as the GSMA representative on the RCC Spectrum Management Commission from 2016 to 2020 inclusive.

Before joining GSMA (2005-2011), Konstantin was responsible for work on national and

international projects in the field of standardisation and testing of next generation networks (NGN) technologies in the role of Deputy Director of Technopark Central Research Institute of Russia.

Konstantin received an MBA degree in Management in Telecommunications from the Moscow International Higher School of Business (MIRBIS, AMBA) and a diploma in Telecommunications Engineer from the Moscow Technical University of Communications and Informatics.

Aziz Akhundjanov is a seasoned entrepreneur based in Tashkent with over 17 years of experience in the telecommunications industry. He has held key leadership roles, including serving as a lead at the Internet Providers Expert Council, where he contributed to shaping industry standards and policy discussions in Uzbekistan’s evolving digital landscape.

In addition to his work in telecom, Aziz also manages his family-owned business — a well-established company with a 31-year legacy of BCC Group, developing a new brand TelecomX. His unique blend of industry expertise and multi-sector management experience reflects a deep commitment to innovation, sustainable growth, and long-term value creation.

Pouria is a technical manager at Hoopad Cloud, specialising in Internet and network protocols. He focuses on improving the quality of Internet connectivity and has spent nearly a decade working across datacenters, ISPs, and network development teams.

He regularly contributes to the FreeBSD project, improving operating system's networking stacks, particularly for IPv6, and BGP. As an IRNOG Steering Committee member, he has organised and presented at seven IRNOG meetings, fostering regional technical collaboration and knowledge sharing.

Milad is from Iran and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Systems Networking. He has over 12 years of experience in network engineering and has worked with several ISPs in Iran. Currently, he serves as the Enterprise Network Planning Manager at MTN-Irancell (AS44244). Milad is also the co-founder and PC Chair of IRNOG, and has been a member of both the MENOG and RIPE Programme Committees.

Having graduated from the Faculty of Computational Mathematics and Cybernetics at Lomonosov Moscow State University, he worked as a senior portfolio manager of an algorithmic hedge fund specialising in high-frequency trading and as an asset manager in an investment company. In 2015, Nikita founded his own company, RUVDS, which provides hosting services, where he currently holds the position of CEO.

With a strong background in both technical and financial sectors as well as deep involvement in Russian and global IT issues, he provides consulting services for media and government authorities. Besides that, he oversees (as an editor-in-chief) the company’s blog on one of the largest IT communities in the former Soviet Union, which receives more than 11 million views annually. Nikita has authored numerous publications on mathematical modeling of social processes and imitative behavior. Being a laureate of the All-Russian research competition in mathematics, he also сonducts scientific research on cybersecurity issues at the Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Nikita was recognised as "Person of the Year 2024" by the Russian Data Center Awards (RDCA). In 2023 and 2025, RUVDS also received "Hosting Provider of the Year" and "Creative of the Year" awards from the RCDA

Expertise: Community development, Data storytelling, Internet Peering and Interconnection, IPv6, Capacity building, Public Policy and Internet Governance.

Hisham Ibrahim is the Chief Community Officer at the RIPE NCC.

He leads the RIPE NCC's engagement efforts to foster a dynamic, inclusive RIPE community. He is responsible for the engagement with the RIPE NCC members, the RIPE community, Internet governance and training services.

Both from a technical and policy background, Hisham has 20 years of experience in the field of Internet technology and its governance.

He has a strong vision of the market, a broad understanding of technologies used on the Internet and a deep knowledge of the European, African and Middle Eastern markets.

Hisham is active on several committees in various Network Operator Groups (NOGs), peering forums, IPv6 task forces and forums across three continents.

Email: Hisham Ibrahim

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Alex ("Oleksiy") is an External Relations Officer for the RIPE NCC (Eastern Europe and Central Asia) and is based in Moscow.

As part of the External Relations team, he helps lead the RIPE NCC's engagement with membership, the RIPE community, technical bodies, academia, law enforcement and other Internet stakeholders. As Technical Advisor, Alex also follows Internet industry and government developments related to ICT, particularly in the former Soviet countries, monitors and attends industry conferences and meetings, representing the RIPE NCC, and works with internal stakeholders to enhance the RIPE NCC's training activities.

Expertise: IXP, Internet Governance, Industry Development Organisations

Vahan Hovsepyan is an External Relations Officer (Caucasus and Central Asia) at the RIPE NCC. Vahan is in charge of developing cooperation and engaging stakeholders from these regions, including RIPE NCC members, governmental agencies, academic institutions and industry development organisations. Vahan graduated from the Armenian-Russian (Slavic) State University and completed courses at the Maastricht School of Management and the John F. Kennedy School of Government. Vahan has extensive experience working in and with industry development organisations, IXPs and international organisations.

Expertise: community engagement, measurements and tools, Internet governance, RIPE and the RIPE NCC

Anastasiya Pak is a Senior Marketing and Communications Officer at the RIPE NCC. Her work focuses on external communications, including media relations, content development, and stakeholder engagement. She also collaborates with the research team on data pipeline and data storytelling projects.

Before joining the RIPE NCC, Anastasiya led the Communications Department at an international education NGO. She began her career as a TV journalist in Uzbekistan, covering international politics and diplomacy, UN discussions, and other topics related to international political and economic affairs. Anastasiya holds a Bachelor's Degree in International Relations from the University of World Economy and Diplomacy and a Joint Master's in Journalism, Media, and Globalisation from the University of Amsterdam and Aarhus University.

Jim Cowie is a consultant with the RIPE NCC, and a Fellow with the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. His interests include Internet measurement, the preservation of Internet history, and the emerging impacts of AI.

Ties is a software engineer with a master's degree in computer science focusing on the development of RIPE NCC measurement services (RIS and RIPEstat). Before this, Ties worked on RPKI. Working at a regional internet registry, he was involved in the operational aspect of running the RPKI certificate authority and the standardisation of RPKI.