ASEEES is the leading US scholarly organization dedicated to the advancement of knowledge about the countries of the former Soviet Union, Eastern and Central Europe. Every year, more than 2,000 scholars participate in the ASEEES convention. The theme of the 2013 Convention that will take place in Marriott Boston Copley Place is “Revolutions.”

The first panel hosted by IMR is dedicated to the studies of corruption and is titled “Export of Russian Corruption: From Kremlin with Hate.”

The panel's participants are:

• Boris Bruk, IMR Advisor (research paper titled “International Propaganda: The Russian Version”);
• Olga Khvostunova, Harriman Institute, Columbia University (“Corruption of the Fourth Power: The Decline of the Russian Media”);
• Ilya Zaslavskiy, Independent Oil and Gas Consultant (“How the Corruption Originating from Russia Penetrates the West”).

Pavel Ivlev of Feldmans Consulting will act at the panel’s chair, and Sergei Aleksashenko, professor of the Higher School of Economics in Moscow and visiting professor at Georgetown University in Washington DC will be the discussant.

The panel be held on Friday, November 22, from 1:00pm to 2:45pm in the Vineyard Room.

On the same day, IMR will hold a roundtable titled “Is there the End to Putin's Thermidor?”

The roundtable members are:

• Leon Aron, Director of the Russian Studies, American Enterprise Institute;
• Vladimir Kara-Murza, IMR Senior Policy Advisor;
• Ekaterina Mishina, professor at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow;
• Richard Sakwa, professor at the University of Kent (UK).

IMR President Pavel Khodorkovsky will serve as the chair.

The roundtable will take place on Friday, November 22, from 5:00pm to 6:45pm at the Grand Ballroom Salon F.

On Friday evening, IMR will host a reception to welcome ASEEES participants. The reception will begin at 7:45pm in the Wellesley Room.

On Saturday morning, IMR will hold a discussion panel titled “Russian Revolution: Once Began, It Never Ends.”

The panel's participants are:

• Sasha de Vogel, graduate of Columbia University (“Changing Middle Class Political Attitudes in Moscow and St. Petersburg, 2008-2012”)
• Ekaterina Mishina, professor at the Higher School of Economics (research paper titled “Russian Bourgeois Revolution of 1990s: Myths and Reality”);
• Denis Volkov, Sociologist at the Levada Center, Moscow (“Origins, Dynamics and Consequences of the Russian Protest Movement”).

IMR Senior Policy Advisor Vladimir Kara-Murza will chair the roundtable, and Leon Aron will serve as a discussant.

The panel will take place on Saturday, November 23, from 8:00am to 9:45am at the Grand Ballroom Salon F.