The Free Market Foundation (FMF) launched its Luminary Programme at the Media Briefing with Yuri Maltsev at noon on Wednesday, 16 January 2013. The Luminary Programme recognises international and local luminaries in various fields for their distinguished contributions to promoting freedom and enlightenment. The first Luminary Award was made by FMF Chairman, Herman Mashaba, to Yuri Maltsev after his media briefing / presentation at the FMF offices in Bryanston, Johannesburg. Professor Maltsev’s distinguished and material contributions to human liberty and enlightenment make him an eminently suitable recipient of the first Luminary Award.
As an advisor to former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev’s government, Yuri Maltsev made material contributions to the celebrated perestroika reforms aimed at dismantling the oppressive communist system. Dissatisfied with the degree, consistency and pace of reforms he defected to the West in 1989 where he has continued making tireless contributions to liberty and enlightenment.
Professor Maltsev has an MA degree in the History of Economic Thought from Moscow State University, and a PhD in Labour Economics from the Institute for Labour Research at the USSR State Committee on Labour and Social Affairs. He is a prolific author and world-renowned speaker. His unique and broad experience distinguishes him as an internationally respected expert on the opportunities and risks created by the collapse of the Soviet Union. He has consulted with many heads of state and policy-makers on Soviet matters, and may be the only person to have briefed senior leaders on both sides during the last stages of the Cold War.
Professor Maltsev is renowned as one of the few economists in the West with direct knowledge of the inner workings of the Soviet economy and government. Whilst at the Soviet Academy of Sciences he was a member of the presidential advisory team of senior Soviet economists headed by Deputy Prime Minister Leonid Abalkin and renowned academic, Abel Aganbegyan.
Since his defection Professor Maltsev built a reputation for accurately identifying the right economic trends and political developments, on which matters he has consulted with business leaders, policymakers and academics on international trade and economic development. He was a Senior Fellow at the US Institute of Peace in Washington DC where his work involved briefing members of Congress and senior White House officials on issues of national security, and foreign economic and military affairs.
He has also been Program Director at the International Center for Development Policy in Washington DC where he was a lecturer and researcher on the problems of international economic relations, working with members of the US Congress on US-Russian relations and policies towards Russia. Professor Maltsev has testified before the US Congress and appeared on CNN, PBS, C-Span, CBC and other leading media channels in the US, Canada and Europe. He has authored five books, and many articles in encyclopaedias, scholarly journals and the popular media.
He frequently organises international study tours, including the current tour to South Africa. His study tours entail hands-on seminars on international business and economics in Eastern and Western Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America. He is currently a Professor at Carthage College in Wisconsin where he teaches international economics, international trade and finance, comparative economic systems, and international political economy. Professor Maltsev remains dedicated to the study and promotion of human liberty and enlightenment.