Alumni & Careers — Central European University

by Gwen Fernandes

Alexei Sitnikov (POLS '96), currently Vice-President of the New Economy School (NES) of Russia, had the recent honor of welcoming U.S. President Barack Obama to the institution's 16th Annual Commencement Ceremony in Moscow.

In this third major foreign policy speech of his tenure, President Obama addressed the common interests and agendas of Russia and the United States, proposing a revival of their relationship to establish a cooperative effort in the fight against international terrorism. Among the distinguished attendants of the ceremony were former USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev, Minister of Education Andrei Fursenko, Assistant to the Russian President Arkady Dvorkovich, President of Rosnano Anatoly Chubais and many other dignitaries who support the institution in their individual and corporate capacity.

Alexei Sitnikov, after graduating with a degree in History from the Yarolavl State University, started his career as a local news reporter in Russia. He later earned a Master's diploma from CEU, with a focus on constitutionalism in the Russian Federation, and then moved on to pursue a second Master's degree and a PhD at Stanford University.

Alexei has published numerous papers on comparative analysis of political systems and Russia's political economy. In addition to his work at NES, Alexei serves as the Moscow liaison for Stanford University's FSI (Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies) Distance Learning Initiative. As program coordinator, he works with the Stanford University faculty to improve the academic curriculum, maintains the program's online platform and serves as administrator to Stanford's ten partner universities in Russia.