Vice Rector Follows Guriev Out of New Economic School

Sergei Guriev file photo

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – July 31, 2013) A renowned economist is following in the footsteps of Sergei Guriev by leaving the New Economic School in Moscow.

Konstantin Sonin, vice rector and director for undergraduate studies, has accepted a position with Moscow’s Higher School of Economics amid differences with the leadership that has taken the helm of the New Economic School since Guriev abruptly resigned in May, a person familiar with the situation said Wednesday.

Sonin, who announced his departure from the New Economic School on his LiveJournal blog late Tuesday, did not explain his decision but said it was “in no way connected with politics.”

Contacted Wednesday, he said simply that he had accepted a new job.

“I am moving to another university in Moscow,” he said by e-mail, without elaborating.

Guriev, Sonin’s former boss, stepped down in May and fled to France under pressure from the authorities. Guriev was one of the authors of an expert report that acquitted former Yukos owners Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev of money-laundering charges. In the weeks before Guriev left the country, investigators quizzed him about whether he had been bought off by the jailed businessmen.

Guriev is now one of the main ideologists behind Alexei Navalny’s economic program in his bid to become Moscow mayor in an upcoming September election. His support for opposition blogger Navalny is seen by many as the reason why he came under government pressure.

Following Guriev’s exit, an open competition to find his replacement was announced, with Sonin being one of the most obvious candidatures.

Sonin also wrote a column that was published for many years in The Moscow Times.

Both Sonin and Guriev represent a new generation of economists who conduct much of their research abroad. Sonin was a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard University in 2001, while Guriev has been research fellow and affiliate at London’s Center for Economic Policy Research since 1999.

Guriev helped the school become one of the country’s top institutes offering graduate programs in economics and his departure was seen by many pundits as representative of a new brain drain from Russia.

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