Nikolai Petrov

Nikolai Petrov is head of the Center for Political Geographic Research and is a leading research associate with the Institute of Geography at the Russian Academy of Sciences. From 1990–1995, he served as an adviser to the Russian parliament, government, and presidential apparatus. Petrov was the chief organizer of the Analysis and Forecast Division in the Supreme Soviet and head of a governmental working group on regional problems. He also served as an analyst in the Analytical Center of the President. From 1996 to 2000, he led the regional project at the Carnegie Moscow Center, where he published the Political Almanac of Russia 1997, and the annual supplements Russian Regions in 1999 and 2000, as well as numerous essays on elections, federalism, and regionalism. From 2000 to 2002, he taught at Macalester College, St. Paul, Minnesota. He earned his Ph.D. in Geography from Moscow State University in 1982.