Irina Yasina

Biography

Born in Moscow in 1964, she graduated with “red diploma” honors from the Economics Department at Moscow State University. She holds a PhD in Economics.

At present, she is the Lead Researcher at the Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy, and an editor for RIA Novosti.
She has actively been involved in human rights work since the beginning of 2000, has criticized the political process in the M. Khodorkovsky and P. Lebedev trial, and defends the rights of handicapped individuals.

Previously: she was a correspondent for the INTERFAX information agency and Editor of the financial section for The Moscow News newspaper; she was the Economic Editor for The Moscow Times newspaper, the magazine “Itogi” (Sums), and on the radio station"Echo of Moscow." From 1997 to 1998, she headed the Public Relations department of the Russian Federation Central Bank. She worked for five years (from 2001 until 2006) as Director of Charitable and Enlightenment Projects at Open Russia, an inter-regional non-profit organization.

She is author of the books A Person with Human Potential and A History of Disease.

She has mastered Polish and English, and she collects geographical maps.