Pushkin House and Echo are excited to collaborate on a special event in Russian.

Please note: this event will be held exclusively in Russian. All discussion, Q&A, and materials will be in Russian only, and no translation will be provided.

Join us for the launch of Шанс. Америка – Россия: окно возможностей (Chance: America – Russia: A Window of Opportunity), the latest book by Sergey Aleksashenko  – distinguished economist, former deputy finance minister of Russia, and former deputy chairman of Russia’s Central Bank.

In this thought-provoking work, Aleksashenko explores the critical years of 1990–1995, a period that shaped Russia’s political and economic trajectory for decades to come. He examines a key question: why did the West – particularly the United States – not extend the kind of transformative support to Russia that Germany and Japan received after World War II? What were the missed opportunities, and how did they contribute to the rise of an authoritarian system in Russia?

Building on his previous books, Битва за рубль (The Battle for the Ruble) and Контрреволюция (Counter-Revolution), Aleksashenko offers a compelling analysis of Russia’s failed transition in the 1990s, its impact on global history, and the lessons it holds for the future.

Aleksashenko’s book will be available for purchase at the event, in our newly expanded Russian-language section of the Pushkin House Bookshop.

Sergey Aleksashenko is a co-founder of the Boris Nemtsov Foundation for Freedom. Between 1993 and 1995, he was deputy finance minister of Russia, and deputy chairman of the board of the Central Bank of Russia from 1995-1998. Chance: America – Russia: A Window of Opportunity is his fourth book. Aleksashenko also writes a regular newsletter, Behind the Iron Curtain, in which he analyses Russia’s internal political developments and how they affect the world.