Svetlana Rodina graduated in philology in Kazan and later in film directing in Moscow. She has worked as a reporter and host for various TV programmes on the RTR channel. In 2011 she became editor-in-chief of the documentary department of United Media Group. Since 2006 she has primarily worked as a script writer and director for documentaries.  Laurent Stoop has a degree in literature and photography. Just after the end of the Soviet Union he moved to Moscow and worked as a freelance photographer with the photo agency Lookat. In 1995 he founded the production company Mayak-Film. Since then he worked as DOP for various television and feature documentaries, including the award winning and critically acclaimed Citizen Khodorkovsky (2016).