The Institute of Modern Russia is happy to welcome two new members to our Board of Trustees—Dr. Alina Polyakova of the Brookings Institution and Mr. Leonid Nevzlin, entrepreneur and philanthropist.
Dr. Alina Polyakova is the founding director of the Project on Global Democracy and Emerging Technology and fellow at the Brookings Institution, where she leads the Foreign Policy program’s Democracy Working Group. She is also professor of European studies at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University. Previously, she served as director of research and senior fellow for Europe and Eurasia at the Atlantic Council, professor of sociology at the University of Bern, and Fulbright Fellow. Dr. Polyakova holds a master’s and doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley, and a bachelor’s in economics and sociology with highest honors from Emory University. Her work examines Russian political warfare, European populism, digital authoritarianism, and the implications of emerging technologies to democracies. She is author of the 2015 book, The Dark Side of European Integration, and a frequent contributor to The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal, among other media outlets.
Leonid Nevzlin is a well-known entrepreneur, philanthropist, critic of Vladimir Putin and his government and long-time supporter of the Russian democratic opposition. Throughout the 1990s and up to early 2000s, Nevzlin was a shareholder and a top manager at the Bank Menatep, the Rosprom financial industrial group, and the Yukos oil company. Before leaving Russia for Israel in 2003, following the politically motivated Yukos trials, he also served as president of the Russian Jewish Congress, represented the Republic of Mordovia in Russia’s Federation Council, and was elected Rector of the Russian State University for the Humanities.
In Israel, Nevzlin established the NADAV Foundation, launched the Leonid Nevzlin Research Center for Russian and Eastern European Jewry at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University and re-created the Museum of the Jewish People. He is a board member at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, Israel’s first private university, and has also served on the board of governors of the Jewish Agency for Israel, a large nonprofit organization, and the board of trustees of Keren Hayesod, an official fundraiser for Israel. Nevzlin has been a shareholder and a board member of Haaretz, Israel’s leading newspaper, a founder of Liberal, a reputable, Hebrew-language monthly magazine. He has recently launched Detali (Details), a Russian-language news and analytics website.
