Anders Aslund
Anders Aslund is presently a Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute of International Economics. Dr. Aslund has long engaged in monitoring the transformation of formerly socialist economies to market-based economies. While the central areas of his studies are Russia and Ukraine, he also focuses on the broader implications of economic transition. Prior to his tenure at the Institute, Dr. Aslund was Director of the Russian and Eurasian Affairs Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C. He served as an economic advisor to the Russian government from 1991 to 1994 and as an economic advisor to the Ukrainian government from 1994 to 1997.
Zeyno Baran
Zeyno Baran joined Hudson Institute as Senior Fellow and Director of Hudson”s Center for Eurasian Policy in April 2006. From January 2003 until joining Hudson, Ms. Baran directed the International Security and Energy Programs at The Nixon Center. Through writings, seminars and briefings, Ms. Baran helped American policy-makers to understand the Eurasian region”s political, economic and social dynamics and the U.S. interests served by an effective partnership with key allies. Her current work focuses on strategies to thwart the spread of radical Islamist ideology in Europe and in Eurasia and to promote democratic and energy reform processes across Eurasia.
Iryna Bekeshkina
Iryna Bekeshkina is the Deputy (Research) Director of the Democratic Initiatives Foundation and Senior Fellow at the Institute of Sociology of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. Over the years, Dr. Bekeshkina has led many research projects on the role of public opinion, democratization, European integration and various social issues.
Stanislaw Belkowski
Stanislaw Belkowski is currently the Director of the Institute of National Strategy (Moscow). He is one of Russia’s leading experts on Russian-Ukrainian relations.
Ilan Berman
Ilan Berman is Vice President for Policy at the American Foreign Policy Council in Washington, DC. An expert on international terrorism and regional security in the Middle East, Central Asia and the Russian Federation, Mr. Berman”s writings have appeared in such publications as the WSJ Europe, Middle East Quarterly, the Washington Times, the Jerusalem Post and the Journal of International Security Affairs and Strategic Review.
Oleksandr Biletsky
Oleksandr Biletsky is the President of European Movement in Ukraine, the NGO most responsible for promoting the notion of eventual EU membership for Ukraine.
Krzysztof Bobinski
Krzysztof Bobinski works at the Unia & Polska Foundation – a pro-European NGO in Warsaw; in fact, he is the organization’s founder. Mr. Bobinski was, for several years, the Financial Times’ correspondent in Warsaw.
Jan Bugajski
Jan Bugajski is Director of the Eastern European Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The project is engaged in an ongoing analysis of broader political trends encompassing twenty states and aspiring states in Eastern Europe, including the political and security impact of NATO and European Union enlargement.
Nicolae Chirtoaca
His Excellency Nicolae Chirtoaca is Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Republic of Moldova to the United States.
Ariel Cohen
Ariel Cohen is a well-known international expert on Ukrainian, Russian, Eurasian, European and Middle Eastern foreign, security and economic affairs; U.S. and global energy security; terrorism; organized crime and corruption, and other political risk factors. Dr. Cohen is Senior Research Fellow in Russian and Eurasian Studies and International Energy Security at the Davis International Studies Institute at the Heritage Foundation, working closely with Congressmen and Congressional staff members and cabinet-level foreign decision makers. He has over 20 years experience and responsibility in research project management, government relations/political public relations, journalistic writing, and broadcasting.
William H. Courtney
William H. Courtney is Senior Vice President of CSC/DynMeridian Corp. From 1998 to 2000, he served as a Senior Advisor at the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe. In 1997-98, Ambassador Courtney was Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director of the NSC staff for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia. Previously, he served as Ambassador to Georgia and Kazakhstan.
Orest Deychakiwsky
Orest Deychakiwsky is senior staff advisor at the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (Helsinki Commission) whose country responsibilities currently include Ukraine, Belarus and Bulgaria. He has served as a member of U.S. delegations to numerous OSCE/CSCE meetings and as an international election observer in Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Bosnia. Mr. Deychakiwsky has authored or co-authored a sizable number of speeches, statements, resolutions, and articles on issues pertaining to Ukraine or U.S.-Ukrainian relations.
Nadia Diuk
Nadia Diuk currently serves as Program Director for Central and Eastern Europe and the New Independent States at the National Endowment for Democracy, a private nonprofit organization funded by the US Congress to strengthen democratic institutions around the world through nongovernmental efforts. Dr. Diuk has supervised NED programs in this complex region since 1987.
Michel Duray
Michel Duray is the Director of the NATO Documentation and Information Center in Ukraine. Among his earlier NATO postings, Mr. Duray served as Project Manager, NATO Programs on Retraining and Social Adaptation for Former Military Personnel in Partner Countries, Economic Directorate, Political Affairs Division, NATO.
Jeff Goldstein
Jeff Goldstein oversees Freedom House”s grant portfolio in the former Soviet Union, with particular a focus on Central Asia and supervises field offices in both Almaty and Bishkek. Prior to joining Freedom House, he served as a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Department of State for 25 years, focusing mainly on Central Europe and the former Soviet Union. Mr. Goldstein served at the U.S. embassies in Moscow, Warsaw and Tallinn – the last as Deputy Chief of Mission – and in Washington in the Offices of the Assistance Coordinator for Europe and Eurasia and the Special Negotiator for Eurasian Conflicts.
Kostyantyn Hryshchenko
His Excellency Kostyantyn Hryshchenko is currently Ukraine’s Ambassador to Russia; from 2000-2003, he served as Ukraine”s Ambassador to the United States. In the 2003-2004 period, Ambassador Hryshchenko held the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. Earlier in a his diplomatic career, he served as Ambassador of Ukraine to the Kingdom of Belgium, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and as the Head of the Ukrainian Mission to NATO.
Volodymyr Ihnashchenko
Volodymyr Ihnashchenko presently serves as an energy consultant to both governmental and non-governmental agencies in Ukraine. Prior to his current obligations, he held a number of senior posts in the Ukrainian government, including a stint as Deputy Minister of the Economy and as Deputy Minister of Ecology.
Taras Kuzio
Taras Kuzio is President of Kuzio Associates, an independent consultancy and government communications company based in Washington DC and Kyiv; concurrently, he is a Research Associate at the Elliot School of International Affairs, George Washington University. Dr. Kuzio has prepared papers, given talks, and participated in the preparation of reports to numerous U.S. government agencies, including the United States Department of State, Industrial College of the Armed Forces, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the U.S. Institute for Peace.
F. Stephen Larrabee
F. Stephen Larrabee is a Senior Staff member at RAND in Washington, D.C. and holds the RAND Corporate Chair in European Security. From 1978-1981, Dr. Larrabee served on the U.S. National Security Council staff in the White House as a specialist on Soviet-East European affairs and East-West political-military relations.
Nico Lange
Nico Lange is the Director of the Ukraine Programme and Kyiv Office of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung. Mr. Lange has proven to be a critical force behind many of the recent forums dedicated to studying Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic Future.
Lewis Madanick
Lewis Madanick is currently Program Manager for the US Library of Congress” Open World Leadership Development Center, charged with bringing a new generation of leaders from Lithuania, Ukraine and Uzbekistan to the United States for an internship in building responsible civil society and democratic government”.
Volodymyr Makukha
Volodymyr Makukha is presently the Deputy Minister of Energy and Fuel of Ukraine. In the past, he has served as Ukraine’s Minister of the Economy and as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Marek Matraszek
Marek Matraszek is Founding Partner and Managing Director of CEC Government Relations, a leading public affairs agency in Central Europe; his articles on foreign affairs have appeared regularly in leading Polish broadsheets.
Nadia K. McConnell
Nadia K. McConnell is President of the US-Ukraine Foundation, which she helped found in 1991 to promote democratic development and free market reform in Ukraine. The Foundation’s first initiative in Ukraine was the Pylyp Orlyk Institute, a non partisan, locally registered, public policy research organization..
Agshin Mehdiyev
His Excellency Agshin Mehdiyev was appointed as the Permanent Representative of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the United Nations, New York, with the rank of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary in October 2006. Prior to his present appointment, Ambassador Mehdiyev was his country”s Permanent Representative to the Council of Europe from February 2001 to October 2006. Between 1993 and 2001, he held several posts, including Head of the Europe, USA and Canada Department in Azerbaijan”s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.