On April 19, 2018, Grigorijs Mesežnikov took part in the international conference on Assessing China’s Presence in Central Europe, organized in Bratislava by Association of International Affairs (Prague), the Institute of Asian Studies (Bratislava) and the Central and Eastern European Center for Asian Studies (Budapest).

In his presentation on the thematic round table that dealt with  activities of China in the countries of Central Europe in the field of civil society and media, IVO president presented the findings of the research project Projection of Malign Authoritarian Influence: Vulnerable Democracies in Contested Space, in particular the analytical comparative publication Sharp Power: Rising Authoritarian Influence, analyzing activities of Russia and China in Poland, Slovakia, Peru and Argentina.

Based on the analysis, Grigorij Mesežnikov compared the commonalities and differences between the above mentioned authoritarian states in their efforts to influence internal development in Central European countries.