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Email: yuri@discovery.org

Articles by Yuri Mamchur

Yuri Mamchur, a Russian national and a Moscow native, serves as Director of Discovery Institute's Real Russia Project. He is the senior writer for the program's popular news site, Russia Blog, which he developed after founding the Real Russia Project in April 2005.

Before joining Discovery Institute and founding the Real Russia Project, Mr. Mamchur served in non-profit sector in Washington, D.C., and the private and academic sectors in Moscow. He worked for the Moscow-based law firm Yust before serving as Director of International Relations for the Sodeystvie Fund. He also served as Associate Principal for the Moscow School of Advanced Foreign Languages Studies before joining the Philanthropy Roundtable in Washington D.C. In the late 1990s, he represented one of the first private Ukrainian companies in Moscow, establishing contacts and developing copyright agreements.

On top of his academic and professional expertise, Mr. Mamchur's upbringing gives him a unique perspective on the commonalities and challenges inherent in post-Soviet, U.S.-Russia engagement and understanding. His parents held high-ranking positions in the former Soviet government (his father was a speechwriter and spokesman for the defense ministry until 1995). After the fall of the Soviet Union, the Mamchur family, still living in Moscow, worked through the economic and cultural uncertainties facing Russia's new democracy. In the last decade, Mr. Mamchur has traveled extensively in Russia and the U.S., and has immersed himself in American culture. Mr. Mamchur is also a Russian composer. In his free time he enjoys teaching piano to young students and volunteering with the Tacoma (Wash.) YMCA.

Mr. Mamchur studied public policy at the Georgetown University (Washington, D.C.), and holds a law degree with honors from the Russian Tax Academy School of Law (Moscow, Russia), where he was a PhD candidate. In August 2009, in conjunction with his work for Discovery Institute, Mr. Mamchur will start pursuing his MBA degree at the Vanderbilt University Owen Graduate School of Management (Nashville, Tenn.).