Affiliation : The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation
Position : Deputy Minister
Biography :
PhD in Economics, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary. In 1978 he graduated from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations. He served for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of the USSR and Russia in various positions at central office and abroad over 30 years. Since 2004 – Director of the Department for Security Affairs and Disarmament of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He has broad experience in negotiation processes. He was a head of Russian government delegations at negotiations on the Treaty on Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, Review of Inhumane Weapons Convention, Elimination of Chemical Weapons Convention, Elimination of Biological Weapons Convention, Treaty on Strategic Offensive Arms. He was the head of Russian delegation at the talks with the U.S. on new START treaty. From February 2, 2011 to December 28, 2016 he held the position of a Deputy Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation. In this post he oversaw the issues of international military cooperation and organization of contacts between the Ministry of Defence and military agencies of other states. On December 28, 2016 President Vladimir Putin appointed him as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation. He is currently responsible for the military and political issues. PIR Center Advisory Board member since 2000. Member of the SuPR (Sustainable Partnership with Russia) Group since 2009. Member of the PIR Center EKS Working Group on International Cooperation in Mass Destruction Weapon Nonproliferation and Physical Nuclear Safety since 2012.
Buzhinskiy, Evgeny P.
City : Moscow
Affiliation : PIR Center
Position : Chairman of the Executive Board
Expertise :
Political and military aspects of international security
Lieutenant-General (Retired), Ph.D. Military Sciences. In the Armed Services since 1968. Graduated from the Military Institute of Foreign Languages, M.V. Frunze Military academy. 1976-1992 – served in different positions in the General Staff of the USSR and Russian Federation. From 1992 to 2002 – served in positions of: Senior Officer, Deputy Head of Direction, Head of Direction, Deputy Head of Department, Head of the International Treaties Department of the Russian Ministry of Defense. Promoted to the rank of Major-General in 2000, to the rank of Lt.-General – in 2003. In 2002 he was appointed on the position of Head of the International Treaties Department – Deputy Head of the Main Directorate of International Military Cooperation of the Russian Federation Ministry of Defense. Retired from active duty in 2009. In 2009-2017 – PIR Center Consultant, then Senior vice-president. PIR Center’s Chairman of the Executive Board since 2014. From 2016 – Associate professor and Head of Center for Applied Political-Military Research of School of World Politics, M.V.Lomonosov Moscow State University. Deputy CEO of “Vega Radio Engineering Corporation” from 2009 to 2018. Vice-President of Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC). Expertise: arms control, political and military aspects of international security, non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, military use of the outer space, Russia-NATO, Russia-U.S., Russia-China relations. 10/20
Chernenko Elena Vladimirovna
City : Moscow
Affiliation : Special correspondent, Kommersant Publishing House; Co-Chair of the Trialogue Club International.
Expertise :
Cyber security
Arms control
Biography :
Elena graduated from Moscow State University in 2005 and later went on to get her Ph.D. in History. In journalism since 2003. She worked as a correspondent for the Germany desk and as a radio broadcast host for the Russian government’s radio broadcasting service Voice of Russia. She has also been a correspondent for the newspaper Moskauer Deutsche Zeitung, the wire service EurActiv, and the magazine Russian Newsweek. Elena’s professional interests include cyber security and diplomacy, arms control and disarmament, and Russian foreign policy in general. She speaks Russian, English and German. Member of the Sustainable Partnership with Russia (SuPR) Group since 2013. Member of the PIR Center EKS Working Group on International Information Security and Global Internet Governance since 2012. Member of the Executive Board of the PIR Center. Member of the Board of the Council on Foreign and Defense Relations (SVOP).
Cirincione, Joseph
City : Washington D.C.
Affiliation : President, Ploughshares Fund
Biography :
President of the Ploughshares Fund. Cirincione had previously served as Vice President for National Security and International Policy at the Center for American Progress in Washington, DC, and for eight years as the director for nonproliferation at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He is the author of Bomb Scare: The History and Future of Nuclear Weapons (2007) and Deadly Arsenals: Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Threats (2006). He is on the adjunct faculty of the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, where he teaches in the Master of Science in Foreign Service Program, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He has written over 200 articles on defense issues, produced two DVDs on proliferation, appears frequently in the media, and has given over 150 lectures around the world in the past two years. He is the author of Bomb Scare: The History and Future of Nuclear Weapons (Columbia University Press, Spring 2007). He is the co-author of Contain and Engage: A New Strategy for Resolving the Iranian Nuclear Crisis (March 2007), two editions of Deadly Arsenals: Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Threats (2005 and 2002), Universal Compliance: A Strategy for Nuclear Security (March 2005) and WMD in Iraq, (January 2004). He has held positions at the Henry L. Stimson Center, the U.S. Information Agency, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He is an honors graduate of Boston College and holds a Masters of Science with highest honors from the Georgetown School of Foreign Service. He is happily married with two children. PIR Center Advisory Board member since 2004. Member of the Sustainable Partnership with Russia (SuPR) Group since 2009.
Elleman Michael
Affiliation : Senior Research Associate, The International Institute for Strategic Studies – US (IISS-US)
Biography :
Mr. Elleman currently leads a team of experts from the U.S., Russia and Europe preparing a joint assessment of the missile threat to Europe (including Russia) and potentially North America that may be posed by Iran’s missile development program. Before joining the IISS, Mr. Elleman spent five years at Booz Allen Hamilton, a U.S. consulting firm, where he supported the implementation of Cooperative Threat Reduction programs sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense and the Department of Energy. He also provided weapons proliferation analyses to the Advanced Systems and Concepts Office (ASCO) at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA). Previously, he spent 18 months at the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) as a missile expert for weapons inspection missions in Iraq. Prior to joining the UN, he spent two decades as a scientist as Lockheed Martin’s Research and Development Laboratory, where his activities focused on solid propellants, weapons elimination technologies, nuclear effects and special materials research. From 1995 to 2001, he led a Cooperative Threat Reduction program in Russia, aimed at dismantling obsolete long-range missiles. He is a graduate of physics from the University of California, Berkeley. Member of the Sustainable Partnership with Russia (SuPR) Group since 2009.
Hoffman David
Affiliation : Journalist
Biography :
David Hoffman is Contributing Editor at the Washington Post and has been a journalist for more than 30 years. He recently published his second book, The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and its Dangerous Legacy. He is a winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 2010. Mr. Hoffman came to Washington in 1977 to cover Congress, and later served as the Washington correspondent for the San Jose Mercury-News. He covered Ronald Reagan’s campaign for the presidency in 1980, and was national economics correspondent for Knight-Ridder Newspapers. In 1982, he joined The Washington Post to cover the Reagan presidency. As a White House correspondent, he covered the major U.S.-Soviet summits of the Reagan years, including Geneva and Reykjavik, as well as domestic policy and politics. After Reagan left office, he covered the George H. W. Bush presidency. Later, he was diplomatic correspondent at the time the Soviet Union collapsed, and then served as Jerusalem correspondent, covering the Oslo peace accords. From 1995 to 2001, he served as Moscow bureau chief. His first book, based on reporting in Moscow, was The Oligarchs: Wealth and Power in the New Russia. On returning to Washington in 2001, Mr. Hoffman was named Foreign Editor and then Assistant Managing Editor for foreign news, managing the Post’s foreign service, until 2009. Member of the Sustainable Partnership with Russia (SuPR) Group since 2009.
Holloway David
Affiliation : Board of Directors, Ploughshares Fund
Biography :
David Holloway is the Raymond A. Spruance Professor of International History, a professor of political science, and a Freeman Spogli Institute (FSI) senior fellow at Stanford University. He was co-director of Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) from 1991 to 1997, and director of FSI from 1998 to 2003. Dr. Holloway’s research focuses on the international history of nuclear weapons, on science and technology in the Soviet Union, and on the relationship between international history and international relations theory. His book, Stalin and the Bomb: The Soviet Union and Atomic Energy, 1939-1956, was chosen by the New York Times Book Review as one of the 11 best books of 1994, and it won the Vucinich and Shulman prizes of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies. It has been translated into six languages, most recently into Czech in 2008. Dr. Holloway also wrote The Soviet Union and the Arms Race (1983) and co-authored The Reagan Strategic Defense Initiative: Technical, Political and Arms Control Assessment (1984). He has contributed to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Foreign Affairs, and other scholarly journals. Before coming to Stanford, Dr. Holloway taught at the University of Lancaster (1967-1970) and the University of Edinburgh (1970-1986). Born in Dublin, Ireland, he received his undergraduate degree in modern languages and literature, and his PhD in social and political sciences, both from Cambridge University.Member of the Sustainable Partnership with Russia (SuPR) Group since 2009.
Miasnikov, Evgeny V.
City : Moscow, Russia
Affiliation : Lecturer, General Physics Department, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology
Biography :
Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences. Eugene Miasnikov was graduated from the Department of Aerophysics and Space Research of Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) in 1985. In 1989 he got his Ph. Degree in Physics from MIPT. His dissertation was devoted to the problem of polarized laser light propagation in ocean water. Subsequently, until the end of 1991, he worked in the Scientific Production Association “ELAS” (Zelenograd) as an expert in remote sensing of the ocean from airborne and space platforms. In 1992, Eugene was a visiting fellow at the Defense and Arms Control Studies Program (currently, Security Studies Program) of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he studied current state-of-the-art of submarine detection and its impact on strategic stability in the world. Since 1992 Evgene Miasnikov has been working in the Center for Arms Control, Energy and Environmental Studies, and an active participant of the Center’s research projects. In 2011 Eugene was elected the Director of the Center. PIR Center Advisory Board member since 2011. Member of the Sustainable Partnership with Russia (SuPR) Group since 2013.
Pifer Steven
Affiliation : Senior Research Associate, Brookings Institution
Biography :
Steven Pifer is a senior fellow at the Brookings Center on the United States and Europe, where he focuses on arms control, Russia and Ukraine. He is also a senior adviser (non-resident) with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). He has offered commentary regarding Russia, Ukraine and arms control issues on CNN, Fox News, CNBC, BBC, National Public Radio and VOA, and his articles have appeared in the Washington Post, International Herald Tribune and Boston Globe, among others. A retired Foreign Service Officer, his more than 25 years with the State Department focused on U.S. relations with the former Soviet Union and Europe, as well as arms control and security issues. He served as deputy assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs with responsibilities for Russia and Ukraine (2001-2004), U.S. ambassador to Ukraine (1998-2000), and special assistant to the president and senior director for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia on the National Security Council (1996-1997). In addition to Ukraine, he served at the U.S. embassies in Warsaw, Moscow and London as well as with the U.S. delegation to the negotiation on intermediate-range nuclear forces in Geneva. Ambassador Pifer’s recent publications include “Reversing the Decline: An Agenda for U.S.- Russian Relations in 2009,” Brookings paper (January 2009); “Averting Crisis in Ukraine,” Council on Foreign Relations special report (January 2009); and “Engaging Ukraine in 2009,” Brookings paper (March 2009) with Anders Aslund and Jonathan Elkind. Member of the Sustainable Partnership with Russia (SuPR) Group since 2009.
Spassky, Nikolai N.
City : Moscow
Affiliation : Deputy Director General, Rosatom State Corporation for Atomic Energy of the Russian Federation
Biography :
Doctor of Political Science, Ph.D. in History. Born in 1961. After graduation from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations in 1983 Nikolay Spassky worked in various diplomatic positions within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including Deputy and First Deputy Director, 1992-1994; Director of the North America Department from February 1994; Member of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Board from December 1995; Joint Russian Ambassador to Italy and San Marino, 1998-2004; Assistant Secretary to the Russian Security Council, 2004-2006. Nikolay Spassky holds the diplomatic rank of Plenipotentiary Ambassador, First Class. He is also the co-founder of the Centre russe d’études politiques. Member of the Sustainable Partnership with Russia (SuPR) Group since 2009. Member of PIR Center Editorial Board.
Squassoni Sharon
Affiliation : Director, Senior Research Associate, Proliferation Prevention Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
Biography :
Prior to joining CSIS, Ms. Squassoni was a senior associate in the Nuclear Nonproliferation Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. From 2002-2007, Ms. Squassoni advised Congress as a senior specialist in weapons of mass destruction at the Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress. Before joining CRS, she worked briefly as a reporter in the Washington bureau of Newsweek magazine. Ms. Squassoni also served in the executive branch of government from 1992 to 2001. Her last position was Director of Policy Coordination for the Nonproliferation Bureau at the State Department. She also served as a policy planner for the Political-Military Bureau at State. She began her career in the government as a nuclear safeguards expert in the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. She is the recipient of various service awards and has published widely. She is a frequent commentator for U.S. and international media outlets. Ms. Squassoni received her B.A. in political science from the State University of New York at Albany, a Masters in Public Management from the University of Maryland, and a Masters in National Security Strategy from the National War College. Member of the Sustainable Partnership with Russia (SuPR) Group since 2009.
Zevelev Igor A.
Affiliation : Director, Moscow Office, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
Biography :
Igor comes to the Foundation with strong academic credentials and varied experience as a scholar, teacher, and analyst of Russian politics, foreign policy, and international security. He holds a Doctor of Sciences degree in political science from the Institute of International Relations and World Economy (IMEMO) in Moscow, where he served as Deputy Director and Head of Department at the Center for Developing Countries. He has held visiting professorships at Macalester College, the University of California at Berkeley, San Jose State University, and the University of Washington, and taught for five years at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Garmisch, Germany. He has published five books and numerous articles. He comes to MacArthur after having served as Washington Bureau Chief for the RIA Novosti Russian News and Information Agency since 2009. Member of the Sustainable Partnership with Russia (SuPR) Group since 2009.
