Per Anders Åslund (; born 17 February 1952) is a Swedish

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...

and former Senior Fellow at the

Atlantic Council The Atlantic Council is an American think tank in the field of international affairs, favoring Atlanticism, founded in 1961. It manages sixteen regional centers and functional programs related to international security and global economic prosp ...

. He is also a chairman of the International Advisory Council at the Center for Social and Economic Research (CASE). His work focuses on economic transition from centrally planned to

market economies A market economy is an economic system in which the decisions regarding investment, production, and distribution to the consumers are guided by the price signals created by the forces of supply and demand. The major characteristic of a mark ...

. Åslund served as an economic adviser to the governments of

Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan, officially the Kyrgyz Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Asia lying in the Tian Shan and Pamir Mountains, Pamir mountain ranges. Bishkek is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Kyrgyzstan, largest city. Kyrgyz ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

, and

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

and from 2003 was director of the Russian and Eurasian Program at the

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) is a nonpartisan international affairs think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C., with operations in Europe, South Asia, East Asia, and the Middle East, as well as the United States. Foun ...

. Åslund was an advocate of early, comprehensive, and radical economic reforms in Russia and Eastern Europe. He worked at the

Peterson Institute for International Economics The Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE), known until 2006 as the Institute for International Economics (IIE), is an American think tank based in Washington, D.C. It was founded by C. Fred Bergsten in 1981 and has been led by ...

from 2006 to 2015. In 2013, neoconservative

David Frum David Jeffrey Frum (; born 30 June 1960) is a Canadian-American political commentator and a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush. He is a senior editor at ''The Atlantic'' as well as an MSNBC contributor. In 2003, Frum authored the ...

wrote that "Anders Aslund at the Peterson Institute is one of the world’s leading experts on the collapse of the planned Soviet economy." From 2010 to 2013 and again in 2022 he contributed to ''

The Moscow Times ''The Moscow Times'' (''MT'') is an Amsterdam-based independent English-language and Russian-language online newspaper. It was in print in Russia from 1992 until 2017 and was distributed free of charge at places frequented by English-speaking to ...

'', an independent English-language newspaper; he is also a long-time contributor to the ''

Kyiv Post The ''Kyiv Post'' is Ukraine’s first and most prominent English-language newspaper. It was founded in 1995 in Kyiv by American businessman Jed Sunden. In 2018, the publication was acquired by prominent Ukrainian businessman Adnan Kivan, foun ...

''. Anders Aslund lives in

Washington, DC Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...

, with his wife, Anna, and their two children.

Åslund in Sweden

From 1989 to 1994, Åslund worked as a professor of International Economics at the

Stockholm School of Economics The Stockholm School of Economics (SSE; , HHS) is a private business school located in city district Vasastaden in the central part of Stockholm, Sweden. SSE offers BSc, MSc and MBA programs, along with PhD- and Executive education progr ...

; and in 1989 he became the founding director of the Stockholm Institute of East European Economics. On 22 April 1990 Åslund published a controversial article on ''

Dagens Nyheter (, ), abbreviated ''DN'', is a daily newspaper in Sweden. It is published in Stockholm and aspires to full national and international coverage, and is widely considered Sweden's newspaper of record A newspaper of record is a major nationa ...

'', drawing parallels between the collapsing communist regimes in Eastern Europe and the social democratic policies in Sweden. He argued that Sweden had too large a public sector; supported communist dictatorships, such as

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

, in the Third World; and had excessive state intervention in all areas of life. The ruling

Swedish Social Democratic Party The Swedish Social Democratic Party, formally the Swedish Social Democratic Workers' Party ( , S or SAP), usually referred to as The Social Democrats ( ), is a social democratic political party in Sweden. The party is member of the Progressiv ...

opposed the views of Åslund in dozens of articles. In June 1990, Social Democratic Prime Minister

Ingvar Carlsson Gösta Ingvar Carlsson (born 9 November 1934) is a Swedish politician who twice served as Prime Minister of Sweden, first from 1986 to 1991 and again from 1994 to 1996. He was leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party from 1986 to 1996. He ...

voiced public disagreement with Åslund in the

Riksdag The Riksdag ( , ; also or , ) is the parliament and the parliamentary sovereignty, supreme decision-making body of the Kingdom of Sweden. Since 1971, the Riksdag has been a unicameral parliament with 349 members (), elected proportional rep ...

. However, opposition leader

Carl Bildt Nils Daniel Carl Bildt (born 15 July 1949) is a Swedish politician and diplomat who served as Prime Minister of Sweden from 1991 to 1994. He led the Moderate Party from 1986 to 1999, appearing as its lead candidate in four general elections, b ...

(

Moderate Party The Moderate Party ( , , M), commonly referred to as the Moderates ( ), is a Liberal conservatism, liberal-conservative* * * * * List of political parties in Sweden, political party in Sweden. The party generally supports tax cuts, the free ma ...

) defended Åslund.

Involvement in Russian economic reform

From November 1991 to January 1994, Åslund worked with

Jeffrey Sachs Jeffrey David Sachs ( ; born November 5, 1954) is an American economist and public policy analyst who is a professor at Columbia University, where he was formerly director of The Earth Institute. He worked on the topics of sustainable develop ...

and David Lipton as a senior advisor to the Russian reform government under President

Boris Yeltsin Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin (1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician and statesman who served as President of Russia from 1991 to 1999. He was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) from 1961 to ...

and Acting Prime Minister

Yegor Gaidar Yegor Timurovich Gaidar (; rus, Егор Тимурович Гайдар, p=jɪˈɡor tʲɪˈmurəvʲɪtɕ ɡɐjˈdar; 19 March 1956 – 16 December 2009) was a Soviet and Russian economist, politician, and author, and was the Acting Prime Min ...

. He worked also with Deputy Prime Ministers

Anatoly Chubais Anatoly Borisovich Chubais (; born 16 June 1955) is a Russian- Israeli politician and economist who was responsible for privatization in Russia as an influential member of Boris Yeltsin's administration in the early 1990s. During this period, ...

and Boris Fedorov. Åslund summarized his views in his book ''How Russia Became a Market Economy''.

Other work

After his experiences in Russia, Åslund worked as an economic advisor to President

Leonid Kuchma Leonid Danylovych Kuchma (, ; born 9 August 1938) is a Ukrainian politician who was the second president of Ukraine, serving from 19 July 1994 to 23 January 2005. The only president of Ukraine to serve two terms, his presidency was marked by demo ...

of Ukraine from 1994 to 1997, and from 1998 to 2004, to President

Askar Akayev Askar Akayevich Akayev (, ; born 10 November 1944) is a Kyrgyz former politician who served as President of Kyrgyzstan from 1990 until being overthrown in the March 2005 Tulip Revolution. Education and early career Akayev was born in Kyzyl-B ...

of Kyrgyzstan. Åslund has also worked substantially with economic policy in the

Baltic countries The Baltic states or the Baltic countries is a geopolitical term encompassing Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. All three countries are members of NATO, the European Union, the Eurozone, and the OECD. The three sovereign states on the eastern co ...

, first as a member of the International Baltic Economic Commission from 1991 to 1993, and later as an informal advisor to Latvian Prime Minister

Valdis Dombrovskis Valdis Dombrovskis (; born 5 August 1971) is a Latvian politician serving as Executive Vice President of the European Commission for An Economy that Works for People since 2019 and European Commissioner for Trade since 2020. He previously serv ...

from 2009. (Dombrovskis was prime minister until 2014.)

Work in Ukraine

In 2016, Åslund was appointed to the supervisory board of Ukraine's 23rd largest bank, Kredyt Dnipro, owned by Ukrainian oligarch

Viktor Pinchuk Victor Mykhailovych Pinchuk (; born 14 December 1960) is a Ukrainian businessman and oligarch. As of January 2016, ''Forbes magazine'' ranked him as 1,250th on the list of wealthiest people in the world, with a fortune of US$1.44 billion. ...

. From July 2004-January 2005, Åslund co-chaired a Blue Ribbon Commission on a Reform Program for the Next Ukrainian President, sponsored by the United Nations Development Program. From September 2009-February 2010, he co-chaired an Independent Commission of International Experts on Economic Reform for the Ukrainian Government, sponsored by the Swedish and Dutch governments. From May 2014-April 2016, Åslund worked as an Advisor to the Ukrainian Minister of Economy. From January 2016-August 2020, Åslund was a non-executive director of Bank Credit Dnepr, Ukraine, and from June 2018-September 2020, he was a non-executive director of Ukrzaliznytsia (the Ukrainian state railways), Ukraine. He resigned in September 2020, complaining that "I feel neither wanted by the shareholder nor offered viable working conditions, while the legal liability is mine."Anders Åslund, “This is no way to run a railway,” Kyiv Post, September 26, 2020. https://www.kyivpost.com/article/opinion/op-ed/anders-aslund-this-is-no-way-to-run-a-railway.html

Books

* ''Gorbachev's Struggle for Economic Reform'',

Cornell University Press The Cornell University Press is the university press of Cornell University, an Ivy League university in Ithaca, New York. It is currently housed in Sage House, the former residence of Henry William Sage. It was first established in 1869, maki ...

, 1989 * ''Market Socialism or the Restoration of Capitalism?'',

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...

, 1991 * ''Post-communist Economic Revolutions: How Big A Bang?'',

Routledge Routledge ( ) is a British multinational corporation, multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, academic journals, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanit ...

, 1992 * ''The Post-Soviet Economy: Soviet and Western Perspectives'',

Palgrave MacMillan Palgrave Macmillan is a British academic and trade publishing company headquartered in the London Borough of Camden. Its programme includes textbooks, journals, monographs, professional and reference works in print and online. It maintains offi ...

, 1992 * ''Changing the Eco System'', Pinter Publishers, 1994 * ''Economic Transformation in Russia'',

St. Martin's Press St. Martin's Press is a book publisher headquartered in Manhattan in New York City. It is headquartered in the Equitable Building (New York City), Equitable Building. St. Martin's Press is considered one of the largest English-language publishe ...

, 1994 * ''How Russia Became a Market Economy'',

Brookings Institution Press The Brookings Institution, often stylized as Brookings, is an American think tank that conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in economics (and tax policy), metropolitan policy, governance, foreign policy, global econ ...

, 1995 * ''Russian Economic Reform at Risk'', Pinter Publishers, 1995 * ''Russia's Economic Transformation in the 1990s'', Pinter Publishers, 1998 * ''Russia After Communism'',

, 1999 * ''Economic Reform in Ukraine: The Unfinished Agenda'', Routledge, 2000 * ''Revolution in Orange: The Origins of Ukraine's Democratic Breakthrough'', Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2006 * ''Russia's Capitalist Revolution: Why Market Reform Succeeded and Democracy Failed'',

, 2007 * ''Europe After Enlargement'',

, 2007 * ''Building Capitalism: The Transformation of the Former Soviet Bloc'', Cambridge University Press, 2008 * ''The Challenges of Globalization: Imbalances and Growth'', Peterson Institute for International Economics, 2008 * ''How Ukraine Became a Market Economy and Democracy'', Peterson Institute for International Economics, 2009 * (with Andrew Kuchins) ''The Russia Balance Sheet'', Peterson Institute for International Economics, 2009 * ''Russia After the Global Economic Crisis'', Peterson Institute for International Economics, 2010 * ''The Last Shall Be the First: East European Financial Crisis, 2008-10'', Peterson Institute for International Economics, 2010 * (with

) ''How Latvia Came Through the Financial Crisis'', Peterson Institute for International Economics, 2011 * (with Gary Clyde Hufbauer) ''The United States Should Establish Permanent Normal Trade Relations with Russia'', Peterson Institute for International Economics, 2012 * ''How Capitalism Was Built: The Transformation of Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, the Caucasus, and Central Asia'', Cambridge University Press, 2013 * (with

Simeon Dyankov Simeon Dyankov (, also Djankov; born July 13, 1970) is a Bulgarian economist and chairman of the Fiscal Council since March 2025. From 2009 to 2013, he was the deputy prime minister and minister of finance of Bulgaria in the government of Boyko ...

)
The Great Rebirth: Lessons from the Victory of Capitalism over Communism
', Peterson Institute for International Economics, 2014 * ''Ukraine: What Went Wrong and How to Fix It'', Peterson Institute for International Economics, 2015 * (with

) ''Europe's Growth Challenge'',

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 2017 * ''Putin's Economic Policy and Its Consequences'', Oxford University Press, 2019 * ''Russia's Crony Capitalism: The Path from Market Economy to Kleptocracy'',

Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day and Clarence Day, grandsons of Benjamin Day, and became a department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and ope ...

, 2019

References

Bibliography

Authored Books * ''Private Enterprise in Eastern Europe. The Non-Agricultural Private Sector in Poland and the GDR, 1945–83'' Macmillan, London, 1985, 294 pp. * ''Gorbachev's Struggle for Economic Reform'', Pinter, London, and Cornell University Press, Ithaca, 1989, 219 pp. 2nd ed., Pinter, London, and Cornell University Press, Ithaca, 1991, 262 pp. * ''Post-Communist Economic Revolutions: How Big a Bang?'' The Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington, DC, and Westview, 1992, 106 pp. * ''How Russia Became a Market Economy'', 1995, * ''Getting It Wrong: Regional Cooperation and the Commonwealth of Independent States, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace'', Washington, D.C., 1999., with Martha Brill Olcott and Sherman W. Garnett, * ''Building Capitalism: The Transformation of the Former Soviet Bloc'', 2001, * ''How Capitalism Was Built: The Transformation of Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia'', New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007. * ''Russia's Capitalist Revolution: Why Market Reform Succeeded and Democracy Failed'', 2007, * ''How Ukraine Became a Market Economy and Democracy'', 2009, * ''The Russia Balance Sheet'', 2009 by Anders Åslund and Andrew Kuchins, * ''The Last Shall Be the first: The East European Financial Crisis, 2008–10'', 2010, * ''How Latvia Came through the Financial Crisis'', 2011, by Anders Åslund and

, * ''Ukraine: What Went Wrong and How to Fix It'', 2015, *''Russia’s Crony Capitalism: The Path from Market Economy to Kleptocracy'', 2019, Edited Books * ''Market Socialism or the Restoration of Capitalism?'', 1992, * ''The Post-Soviet Economy: Soviet and Western Perspectives'', 1992, * ''Changing the Economic System in Russia'', 1993, by Anders Åslund and

Richard Layard Peter Richard Grenville Layard, Baron Layard FBA (born 15 March 1934) is a British labour economist, co-director of the Community Wellbeing programme at the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics, and co-editor of t ...

, * ''Economic Transformation in Russia'', 1994, * ''Russian Economic Reform at Risk'', 1995, * ''Sotsialnaya politika v period perekhoda k rynku: problemy i resheniya (Social Policy in the Transition to a Market Economy: Problems and Solutions)'', 1996 by Anders Åslund and Mikhail Dmitriev, * ''Russia's Economic Transformation in the 1990s'', 1997, * ''Russia After Communism'', 1999 by Anders Åslund and Martha Brill Olcott, * ''Economic Reform in Ukraine: The Unfinished Agenda'', 2000 by Anders Åslund and Georges de Ménil, * ''Ocherki o mirovoi ekonomike. Vydayushchiesya ekonomisty mira v Moskovskom Tsentre Carnegie. (Series of Lectures on Economics: Leading World Experts at the Carnegie Moscow Center)'', 2005 by Anders Åslund and Tatyana Maleva * ''Russia Versus the United States and Europe – or "Strategic Triangle"?'', 2005 by Anders Åslund and Hannes Adomeit * ''Revolution in Orange: The Origins of Ukraine's Democratic Breakthrough'', 2006 by Anders Åslund and

Michael McFaul Michael Anthony McFaul (born October 1, 1963) is an American academic and diplomat who served as the United States ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014. McFaul became the Ken Olivier and Angela Nomellini Professor in International Studies in ...

, * ''The Challenges of Globalization'', 2008 by Anders Åslund and Marek Dabrowski, * ''Russia After the Global Economic Crisis'', 2010 by Anders Åslund, Sergey Guriyev, and Andrew Kuchins, * ''Europe After Enlargement'', 2012 by Anders Åslund and Marek Dabrowski, * ''The Great Rebirth: Lessons from the Victory of Capitalism over Communism'', 2014 by Anders Åslund and

Simeon Djankov Simeon Dyankov (, also Djankov; born July 13, 1970) is a Bulgarian economist and chairman of the Fiscal Council since March 2025. From 2009 to 2013, he was the deputy prime minister and minister of finance of Bulgaria in the government of Boyko ...

, *''Europe’s Growth Challenge'', 2017 by Anders Åslund and

External links

Anders Åslund
Biography at the

's site
Anders Aslund , CASE - Center for Social and Economic Research
CV at the CASE Center for Social and Economic Research's site
Anders Åslund's
opinion editorial commentaries for

Project Syndicate ''Project Syndicate'' is an international nonprofit media organization that publishes and syndicates commentary and analysis on a variety of global topics. All opinion pieces are published on the ''Project Syndicate'' website, and also distribu ...

* * AtlanticCouncil, streamed live on May 7, 2019 {{DEFAULTSORT:Aslund, Anders Atlantic Council 1952 births Living people Swedish economists Alumni of St Antony's College, Oxford Georgetown University faculty Academic staff of the Stockholm School of Economics People from Karlskoga Municipality The Moscow Times people