Clifford Gaddy, an economist specializing in Russia, is a senior fellow in the Foreign Policy program's Center on the United States and Europe. He is a co-founder and senior scientific advisor of the joint Russian-American Center for Research on International Financial and Energy Security, based at Penn State University, USA. He is the co-author of Bear Traps on Russia’s Road to Modernization (Routledge, 2013). His earlier books include The Siberian Curse: How Communist Planners Left Russia Out in the Cold (Brookings Institution Press, 2003); Russia’s Virtual Economy (Brookings Institution Press, 2002); The Price of the Past: Russia's Struggle with the Legacy of a Militarized Economy (Brookings Institution Press, 1996); and Open for Business: Russia’s Return to the Global Economy(Brookings Institution Press, 1992). Gaddy is also the co-author of the recently released second edition of Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin (Brookings Institution Press, 2015).Gaddy earned his doctorate in economics from Duke University, USA. He has held teaching and research positions at Duke, Georgetown University, and Johns Hopkins University, USA. He has traveled widely in Russia and been a guest scholar at various research institutes in the country, including the Institute for Economic Forecasting in Moscow, the Kostroma Agricultural Institute, and the Perm Technology Research Center. In the mid-1990s, he was an advisor to the Russian finance ministry and regional governments on issues of fiscal federalism for the U.S. Government’s Tax Reform Oversight Project for Russia. Barry Ickes is a Professor of Economics and Associate Head, Department of Economics, The Pennsylvania State University, USA. Ickes is also a Non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution; Director, Center for Research on International Financial and Energy Security, Penn State; Chair of the Research Committee, New Economic School in Moscow; and the President of the American Friends of the New Economic School in Moscow.