Alena V. Ledeneva  is Professor of Politics and Society at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London, UK. She studied Economics at the Novosibirsk State University (1986) and Social and Political Theory at the University of Cambridge (Newnham College, M.Phil.1992; Ph.D.1996). She’s been a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at New Hall College at Cambridge in 1996–1999; a Senior Fellow at the Davis Center, Harvard University (2005); a Simon Professor at the University of Manchester (2006), a Visiting Professor at Sciences Po, Paris (2010). She authored a number of books including How Russia Really Works (Cornell University Press, 2006) and Russia’s Economy of Favours (Cambridge University Press, 1998) and numerous articles. Her expertise is on Russia and global affairs, global governance and corruption; informal economy; economic crime; informal practices in corporate governance; role of networks and patron-client relationships. 

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