Yuri Fenopetov

Yuri Fenopetov is the Acting Head of the OSCE Programme Office in Astana as of March 2025. In September 2022, he joined the OSCE Programme Office in Astana as its Deputy Head. Before this assignment, he served as Senior Political Adviser to the Head of the OSCE Programme Office in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan from 2018 to 2022. He is from and seconded by Austria.

From 2016 to 2018, he served in the Austrian Foreign Ministry, in various functions, including as a Desk Officer covering the Council of Europe, as well as in the OSCE Department, where he covered Central Asia and OSCE election observation activities. During Austria’s 2017 OSCE Chairpersonship, he served in the Austrian Permanent Mission to the OSCE, where his primary functions included advising the Head of Mission on political issues related to the Central Asian region.

Previously, he worked in various functions for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the United Nations Information Services, the OSCE Conflict Prevention Centre (Central Asia Desk), the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, and the Central Asia Drug Action Programme (European Commission). He holds a Master’s Degree from the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna, also completing its Diploma Programme, where he specialized in international relations, international law, and history, and a Bachelor’s Degree in International Relations from Webster University Vienna. He is fluent in English, German, and Russian, and has proficiency in French.

Former Heads of the OSCE Programme Office in Astana

2021-2025: Volker Frobarth (Germany)

2016-2021: Gyorgy Szabo (Hungary)

2012-2016: Natalia Zarudna (Ukraine)

2008-2011: Alexandre Keltchewsky (France)

2004-2008: Ivar Vikki (Norway)

2002-2004: Anton Rupnik (Slovenia)

2002-2002: Istvan Venzel (Hungary)

2001-2002: Heinrich Haupt (Germany)

2000-2001: Herbert Salber (Germany)

1999-2000: Ulrich Schoening (Germany)