Russia is building an "Iron Curtain 2.0," a sophisticated and selective version of the Cold War Iron Curtain. Recent developments have included the designation of academic and cultural institutions such as ASEEES and the British Council as "undesirable," targeted disruptions of financial transactions, deliberate border closures, and proposals to restrict international flights and telecommunications. The Israel and Iran conflict is likely to add to regime anxiety in Russia and prove divisive for the Russian political class, especially if unequivocal support for Iran is increasingly seen as a losing proposition. This PONARS Eurasia panel will explore the similarities and differences between the Cold-War Iron Curtain and its contemporary redux. Speakers will also assess the impact of the Israel-Iran war on the Russian regime's domestic and international policy dilemmas.

Speakers:

Theodore P. Gerber is Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His research focuses on social stratification, migration, demography, housing, public opinion, and other aspects of social and economic change in the former Soviet region. He was the founding director of the Wisconsin Russia Project (September 2016–May 2025) and directed the University’s Center for Russia, East Europe, and Central Asia for twelve years. His recent publications include co-authored articles on: collective memory of Stalin’s repressions in Russia (American Sociological Review); housing inequality in Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Ukraine (American Journal of Sociology); the effects of internal displacement on subjective well-being in Ukraine (Social Forces); and the role of uncertainty in shaping fertility intentions among Ukrainians displaced by the Donbas war (European Journal of Population).

Mariya Y. Omelicheva is a Professor of Strategy at the National War College, National Defense University, with expertise in international and Eurasian security, Russian foreign policy, and the crime-terror nexus in Central Asia. Her career spans academia, professional military education, and government service. She is the author of several books, including Webs of Corruption (Columbia, 2019), Democracy in Central Asia (Kentucky, 2015), and Counterterrorism Policies in Central Asia (Routledge, 2011). Her most recent co-authored work, COVID-19 'Humanitarianism' (Brill, 2024), explores geopolitical aid strategies. Dr. Omelicheva frequently engages with policymakers and has worked with organizations such as the U.S. Helsinki Commission, the State Department, and the military. Her research informs both scholarly and policy conversations on security in Eurasia.

Mikhail Troitskiy is a visiting scholar at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University. In 2024–25, he was a visiting professor at the Fletcher School at Tufts University and previously served as professor of practice in Russian studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. From 2017 to 2022, he was dean and associate professor of International Politics at MGIMO University in Moscow. He also worked as deputy director and program officer at the Russia office of the MacArthur Foundation and held a visiting professorship at the European University at St. Petersburg. He is the author of “Offsetting Audience Costs: Intra-Regime Bargaining during Russia’s Full-Scale Invasion of Ukraine” (Problems of Post-Communism, 2025) and “Russian Perspectives on Chinese Negotiating Behavior” in China's Negotiating Mindset and Strategies (Routledge, 2026).

Andrei Yakovlev is an economist specializing in state-business relations in Russia, the political economy of development, industrial policy, and bureaucratic incentives, with comparative work on Russia and China. He spent three decades at HSE University in Moscow, serving as vice-rector and director of the Institute for Industrial and Market Studies. From 2011 to 2022, he co-led the International Center for the Study of Institutions and Development with Timothy Frye. He has held leadership roles in Russian economic research, including as president of ARETT (2015–2019), and received the Gaidar Memorial Prize in 2017. Yakovlev is the author of Agents of Modernization and recent articles in Post-Soviet Affairs and Foreign Affairs. He has been a visiting scholar at Harvard’s Davis Center and is currently a visiting research fellow at Freie Universität Berlin.

Chair:

Timothy Frye is the Marshall D. Shulman Professor of Post-Soviet Foreign Policy at Columbia University. He received a B.A. in Russian Language and Literature from Middlebury College, an M.A. from Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, and a Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University. He has written five books, including Weak Strongman: The Limits of Power in Putin’s Russia and the forthcoming Workplace Politics: How Politicians and Employers Subvert Elections. He is the editor of Post-Soviet Affairs and a member of the Scholars’ Council of the United States Library of Congress. His research and teaching focus on autocratic politics, public opinion, corruption, and the rule of law.