Areas of Expertise

• Foreign economic policy and sanctions
• Economies of Eastern Europe, especially Russia
• European energy and security policy
• Financial markets and global financial architecture
• Multilateral institutions
• Transatlantic relations

Short Bio

Benjamin Hilgenstock was an Associate Fellow at the DGAP’s Center for Geopolitics, Geo-economics, and Technology from July 2023 to June 2025. During this time, he served as a Senior Economist at the KSE Institute of the Kyiv School of Economics, focusing primarily on the international sanctions regime against Russia, particularly in the areas of energy, finance, and export controls. He was also a member of the International Working Group on Russian Sanctions.

Previously, he worked at the Institute of International Finance in Washington, DC (2018–2022), specializing in macroeconomic analysis of emerging and developing economies, including in Central and Eastern Europe. From 2016 to 2018, he was with the International Monetary Fund, contributing to the World Economic Outlook.

Hilgenstock holds a Magister degree in political science, economics, and public law from Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz (2008). He also studied abroad at American University in Washington, DC, and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Languages

German, English, Spanish

[Last updated: July 2025]