Marshall Goldman, Expert on Russia, to Speak at Furman University Nov.19

GREENVILLE, SC – November 4, 2008 – Dr. Marshall Goldman, an internationally recognized authority on Russian economics, politics and environmental policy, will speak on the Furman University campus Wednesday, Nov. 19 at 7 p.m. in Shaw Hall of the Younts Conference Center.

Goldman’s address, Petrostate: Putin, Power, and the New Russia, is free and open to the public.  A question-and-answer session will follow. His visit is sponsored by the Riley Institute at Furman.

Goldman, the Kathryn Wasserman Davis Professor of Russian Economics Emeritus at Wellesley College, served as associate director of the Harvard Russian Research Center from 1975 to 2006.  He will discuss the central themes of his most recent book, Petrostate (Oxford Press 2008), which explores how the Russian government uses its monopoly on east-west pipelines to promote Russia’s political interests.

Goldman is the author of 12 books, including The USSR in Crisis: The Failure of an Economic System and Gorbachev’s Challenge: Economic Reform in the Age of High Technology, in which he envisioned the problems that confronted Perestroika and threw the country into economic and political turmoil.  He has met with Russia President Dmitry Medvedev and former President Vladimir Putin as well as former President George Bush and President George W. Bush.  He continues to meet regularly with business leaders, diplomats, and government officials at the highest levels in both countries.

A graduate of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, he received M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Russian studies and economics from Harvard University.  His articles have appeared in a variety of publications, including Foreign Affairs, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Harvard Business Review, The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, and Science.

For more information contact Don Gordon, Director of the Riley Institute, at 864-294-3327.