Leon Aron, who was born in Moscow and came to the United States as a refugee in 1978, is a senior fellow and Director of Russian studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). He studies Russian domestic and foreign policy; US-Russia relations; and the economic, social, and cultural aspects of Russia’s post-Soviet evolution. He is currently working on a book on the ideals, beliefs, perceptions, and domestic political imperatives that shape Putin’s foreign policy.
From 2014–2020, Dr. Aron was a governor of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees the operations of several international broadcasting outlets, including Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Dr. Aron is a prolific writer and editor, and his books include Roads to the Temple: Memory, Truth, Ideas, and Ideals in the Making of the Russian Revolution, 1987–1991 (Yale University Press, 2012), in which he details and analyzes the intellectual and moral revolution that precipitated the end of the Soviet Union; Russia’s Revolution: Essays 1989–2006 (AEI Press, 2007); and the first in-depth biography of Boris Yeltsin, Yeltsin: A Revolutionary Life (St. Martin’s Press, 2000).Dr. Aron has also taught at Georgetown University and was the recipient of the US Institute of Peace’s Peace Fellowship.
Dr. Aron has a PhD in Political Sociology and an MA in Media Sociology from Columbia University. He also has a BA from Moscow State Pedagogical Institute.