The Harriman Institute

Russian, Eurasian, and Eastern European Studies at Columbia

Pamela Harriman,Winston Churchill, Aleksandr Yakovlev, Robert Legvold and Michael I. Sovern.Leonid Kravchuk
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Ambassador Heyward Isham, Acting Chief of the U.S. Delegation to the Paris Peace Talks, Dies at Age 82
Friday, 26 June 2009

Heyward Isham, graduate of the Russian Institute and longtime member of the Harriman Institute's National Advisory Council, died in Southampton, New York, on June 18th. In addition to his role in negotiating the Paris Peace Accord, Heyward, a career Foreign Service officer, served as U.S. Ambassador to Haiti in the 1970s and held appointments in Berlin and Moscow.

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Padma Desai Authors Introduction for "A CRATE OF VODKA"
Wednesday, 03 June 2009

Padma Desai, Gladys and Roland Harriman Professor of Comparative Economic Systems, Authors Introduction for "A CRATE OF VODKA" by Alfred Kokh and Igor Svinarenko, just released by Enigma Books.

A CRATE OF VODKA:
In a series of conversations the authors revisit the last twenty years of Russia’s history since the end of communism. From the death of Leonid Brezhnev in 1982 to 9/11/2001 Russia lived through monumental changes: economic transformation, where Alfred Kokh was in charge of privatization and Igor Svinarenko covered the scandal as a journalist; Kokh went to Chechnya as a diplomat to negotiate peace while Svinarenko was covering the war and placing his life at risk; Kokh was hired to take over the NTV television station owned by Gasprom while Svinarenko obtained the Soros Foundation award as “Reporter of the Year.” These are some of the issues covered in this lively overview of Russia’s recent history that reads at times like My Dinner with André.

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