Moderators

DR. YURI N. MALTSEV a Soviet Defector and Economic Specialist, is a college professor, prolific author and world-renowned speaker. His unique and broad experiences establish him as a primary source of information on the opportunities and risks created by the collapse of the Soviet Union. Dr. Maltsev has met with many heads of states and governments in the post-Soviet space. He may be the only person to have briefed senior leaders on both sides during the last stages of the Cold War.

Before defecting to the United States in 1989, Dr. Maltsev was a member of a senior Soviet economics team that worked on President Gorbachev's reforms package of perestroika. He is renowned as one of the few economists in the West bearing direct knowledge of the inner workings of the Soviet economy and Soviet government policies in the post-Soviet space and elsewhere. While at the Academy of Science, he was a member of the team of senior Soviet economists headed by Deputy Prime Minister Leonid Abalkin and Academician Abel Aganbegyan working on the economic reforms of President Mikhail Gorbachev.

Since coming to the West in 1989, Dr. Maltsev has made it a priority to consult with business leaders, policymakers, and members of the academic community on international trade and economic development. He has built a reputation for accurately identifying the right economic trends and political developments. Before settling in the Midwest, he was a Senior Fellow at the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington, DC. His work involved briefing members of Congress and senior White House officials on issues of national security, and foreign economic and military assessment. At the International Center for Development Policy (Washington, DC), he was a Program Director, lecturer and researcher on the problems of international economic relations, working with several U.S. Congressmen on issues of U.S.-Russian relations, and Russian policies towards the "Near Abroad."

Dr. Maltsev has testified before the U.S. Congress and appeared on CNN, PBS News Hour, C-Span, CBC, and other television and radio programs in the United States, Canada, and Europe. He is the author of five books and numerous articles published in encyclopedias, scientific journals, and popular publications. He is currently a Professor at Carthage College in Wisconsin, teaching courses in international economics, international trade and finance, comparative economic systems, and international political economy. He has organized successful study tours, with hands-on seminars in international business and economics, to Eastern and Western Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America. He earned his MA in History of Economic Thought from Moscow State University, and his PhD in Labor Economics from the Institute for Labor Research of the USSR State Committee on Labor and Social Affairs.