Marcus Kolga is a journalist, human rights activist and a Canadian analyst of foreign disinformation and influence operations.

He frequently writes and comments on Russian and Central and Eastern European issues and disinformation in Canadian and international media. His articles have been published by The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star, The National Post, The New York Daily Mail, Macleans, The Atlantic Council, The European Observer, and other European publications.

Marcus led the Canadian civil society campaign for Magnitsky human rights sanctions legislation and has actively led and contributed to similar efforts in Estonia, Latvia, Sweden and Australia. He has spoken and testified in the US Capitol and the UK, Australian, Canadian and Estonian Parliaments about Magnitsky Sanctions, Russian disinformation and Interpol reform. In 2018 he received a Magnitsky Global Human Rights award for his leadership of the Canadian Magnitsky campaign and his ongoing advocacy work on human rights.

Marcus founded DisinfoWatch.org in 2020 to monitor and analyze foreign disinformation targeting Canada. DisinfoWatch’s work in monitoring and analyzing foreign information and Influence operations has been featured in the Washington Post, New York Times, The CBC’s National, CTV, Globe and Mail, Global News, National Post and many other platforms.

He has worked with Russian pro-democracy, civil society groups and has arranged advocacy trips and events in Canada for the late Boris Nemtsov, Vladimir Kara-Murza, Garry Kasparov and many others. He helped initiate and is currently leading a Canadian project to support independent Russian and Belarusian journalists with Journalists for Human Rights.

He is a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute Center for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad, The CDA Institute and the Raoul Wallenberg Cetner for Human Rights.

Marcus was made a member of Estonia’s Order of the White Star by President Toomas Hendrik Ilves in 2017. In 2019, he was awarded the Latvian Defense Ministry’s Medal of Honour. In 2023, he was named one of the 50 most influential Torontonians by Toronto Life Magazine.

In March 2022, he was one of the first Canadians named to the Kremlin’s sanctions blacklist and has been a regular target of well documented Russian transnational repression since 2019. In December 2023 Marcus was named to the Chinese government sanctions, making him one of only three Canadians to be sanctioned by both Russia and China.