Reappraising the "Wild" 90s in Russia: Looking Back after Thirty Years: Participant Bios

Randy Bregman is a partner in Dentons’ public policy and regulation practice. Bregman has focused his practice on the Eurasia region for over 25 years. He has significant experience in corporate and trade matters and advises Russian and Western clients in a diverse range of industries, including banking and finance, oil, steel, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, and consumer goods. He has also supervised litigation and administrative disputes in Russia. In addition, he provides legal advice on anti-corruption and sanctions issues. Bregman teaches modern Russian history at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University.

Jill Dougherty is an expert on Russia and the former Soviet Union. In her three-decade career with CNN she served as Foreign Affairs Correspondent, based in Washington, D.C., where she covered the State Department and provided analysis on international issues. Dougherty previously served as U.S. Affairs Editor for CNN International; Managing Editor of CNN International Asia/Pacific, based in Hong Kong; and CNN's Moscow Bureau Chief and Correspondent. In 2013-14 she was a Fellow at the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, where she pursued research on Russia’s mass media.

Andrew Kuchins is the President of the American University of Central Asia in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Andrew Kuchins was a Senior Fellow at the Center for Eurasian, Russian, and East European Studies at Georgetown University. Formerly, Andrew Kuchins was the director of the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Ambassador (ret.) Kenneth Yalowitz served as a U.S. Foreign Service Officer for 36 years and was twice an ambassador: to Belarus from 1994-1997; and  Georgia from 1998-2001. He also served in Moscow (two tours), The Hague and the US Mission to NATO in Brussels.  He was chosen for the Ambassador Robert Frasure award for peacemaking and conflict prevention in 2000 for his work preventing spillover of the Chechen war into Georgia. Ambassador Yalowitz directed the Dickey Center for International Understanding at Dartmouth College from 2003-11. He has been adjunct professor at Georgetown University, Stanford University in Washington and Washington & Lee University, and diplomat-in-residence at American and George Mason Universities.

Mikhail Fishman is one of Russia’s leading independent journalists, liberal thinkers, and political commentators. Fishman has had a distinguished career in broadcast and print journalism, which has earned him the Paul Klebnikov Fund Excellence in Journalism Award.  For the past six years, he has served as a TV presenter and host of the Friday night wrap-up weekly show on Russia’s independent TV Rain cable news network, which he has turned into one of the most viewed and admired political analysis shows on TV Rain. Fishman’s writings have appeared in Russian Forbes, Kommersant, Vedomosti, and other widely-read publications.

Andrei Kozyrev is the former Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation. In 1974 he graduated from the Moscow State Institute for International Relations and subsequently earned a degree in Historical Sciences. He joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1974 and served as head of the Department of International Organizations from 1989-1990. He became the Foreign Minister of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic in October 1990 and retained his position when the Russian Federation gained independence in 1991. As Russia’s first Foreign Minister, Kozyrev promoted a policy of equal cooperation with the newly formed independent states of the former Soviet Union, as well as improved relations with Russia’s immediate neighbors and the West. Kozyrev left the post of Foreign Minister in January 1996, but continued in politics by representing the northern city of Murmansk in the Russian Duma for four years. Since 2000, Kozyrev has lectured on international affairs and served on the boards of a number of Russian and international companies. Kozyrev’s recent book, Firebird: The Elusive Fate of Russian Democracy, takes the reader into the corridors of power to provide a startling eyewitness account of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the struggle to create a democratic Russia in its place, and how the promise of a better future led to the tragic outcome that changed our world forever.

Olga Malinova is a Leading Research Fellow at the Department of Political Science, Institute of Scientific Information in Social Sciences, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, and Vice-President of the Russian Political Science Association. Dr. Malinova is a former Kennan Institute Short Term Grantee and currently teaches at the Higher School of Economics.

Ekaterina Mishina is an independent legal scholar. She received a B.A. and M.A. in Jurisprudence from the Faculty of Law of Moscow State University, graduating in with the highest honors in 1987.  Dr Mishina holds  a Ph.D. in Jurisprudence from the Institute of State and Law of the Russian Academy of Sciences  (1992). She most recently served as a visiting professor of law and political science at the University of Michigan. Ekaterina recently published a book on the 2020 constitutional amendments.

Sergey Parkhomenko is a Russian journalist, publisher, and founder of several projects aimed at developing civic activism and promoting liberal values in Russia. Since August 2003, Parkhomenko has been presenting Sut' Sobytyi (Crux of the Matter) on Radio Echo of Moscow, a weekly program making sense of the events of the past week.