Ksenia holds a master's degree in International Business and Management from the University of Bedfordshire (UK), and a PhD in Economics from the Institute of Regional Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg. Ksenia has experience in analytical research, finance, teaching and project management.

For more than ten years she has worked in the non-profit sector, primarily solving problems in the fields of environmental pollution and civic education in human rights and democracy.

From 2012 to 2020, Ksenia was a member of the Board of the EU-Russia Civil Society Forum, a network of independent non–governmental organizations from Russia and EU member states, whose goal was to expand ties between civil society and strengthen integration between Russia and the EU. In 2014, Ksenia `left Russia for political reasons.

She manages projects and leads the analytical work in the Bellona’s Arctic Project.