Mikhail D. Besedin was born on December 5th 1958 in Chelyabinsk.  He received his Diploma in History and Social science from Chelyabinsk State University in 1984. During 1984 - 1986 he was an assistant lecturer at the Department of Scientific Communism, Southern Ural State University. In the Fall of 1986 Mr. Besedin departed for Moscow to take a postgraduate course at Moscow State University, Department of the CPSU History. His dissertation thesis on historiography of the Comintern's united front tactics was successfully defended in February 1990 and later that year he received his Ph. D.

Since 1990 Mr. Besedin has worked at the Department of Political Science, Southern Ural State University. As an associate professor he conducts a general course in political science and gives an additional course "Democracy Theory and Practice".

At the same time, in 1991 - 1998, Mr. Besedin also worked for the Chelyabinsk State Television and Radio Company as an author and presenter of a weekly program which included reports on Russian and world events as they were covered by correspondents from the USA and Europe.

Dr. Besedin is the author of several publications that deal with separation of powers, electoral system and elections in modern Russia".

Sergei Kukharenko teaches at the Amur State University (AmSU), located in Blagoveschensk. He works at the department of English Philology and Translation, and at the department of World History. Kukharenko received his degree from the faculty of foreign languages at the Blagoveschensk State Pedagogical University in 2002, department of English and Chinese. From 2002 to 2003 he successfully completed IDL 101, 103 and 104 courses, and in 2004 he started teaching IDL 102 and 103. Presently, he is a post-graduate student at the faculty of social sciences, specializing in religion studies with a focus on oriental religions. His thesis investigates Chinese migration to Western Europe and cross-cultural interaction between the immigrants and the host community.

Alexander Larichev is the Manager of the International Center of the Faculty of Law of Petrozavodsk State University, responsible for international projects and programs, fundraising activities of the Faculty. In 1998, Mr. Larichev participated in the Freedom Support Act (FSA/FLEX) exchange student program and later received an award from the Council on International Educational Exchange and the United States Information Agency (USIA) for successful completion of the Ambassador Project program. He was also awarded Arkansas Traveler (Ambassador) Diploma and Government diploma on capital citation to the State of Arkansas, USA.

In 1999, Mr. Larichev enrolled in the undergraduate program of the Faculty of Law of PetrSU. During his student years in PetrSU, Mr.Larichev actively participated in various activities and international projects of the university. He was twice the Captain (in 2005- trainer) of the Petrozavodsk State University Team participating in the Jessup Moot Court Competition (Russian National Round); participated in International Environmental Law schools offered by Vermont School of Law (USA) and worked in the project team of the 2002-2005 NISCUPP Grant of PetrSU- Vermont Law School (USA) Partnership. He also completed 2 Stanford IDL courses- 101 and 104. In 2004, Mr. Larichev received a Diploma with Honors in Jurisprudence from Petrozavodsk State University.

In 2003, Mr. Larichev served as a secretary in the Arbitrazh (Business) Court of the Republic of Karelia. Later, he completed the course “Project management and fundraising”, offered by the School of Project Managers, Northern European Open University. Upon his graduation from the university, he was appointed the head of the International Center of the Faculty of Law of PetrSU where he works up till date. Presently, he also serves as the coordinator of the Russian-American center for federalism and comparative law studies.

Mr. Larichev is enrolled in the postgraduate course of the Faculty of Law and teaches the courses “Maritime law” and “International treaties of Russia” at the Faculty, as well as “International law”, “Administrative law” and “Municipal law” at the Faculty branches. His scientific interests lie in the area of international law, comparative constitutional and administrative law of the US and Russia.

Anna Smirnova is Assistant Professor at the Chair of Social and Political Psychology, Department of Psychology, Yaroslavl State University. She has a Candidate of Science Degree in Political Science from Moscow State University (Russia). Awards include a Medal from the Russian Academy of Sciences for the competition among young scholars for accomplishment in research (2004), and a nomination for the “World Economy and International Relations”. She has published articles in the journals “Polis (Political Studies)” (Russia), and Psicologia Politica (Spain). Research interests include the psychological aspects of international relations, political cognition, and decision-making.

Irina Sosina is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Yakutsk State University, Russia. She was born in 1957, and received her Diploma in History from Leningrad University in 1979. She has worked at Yakutsk State University since 1987. Since 1992 Sosina has worked at the Department of Political Science, History Faculty of YkSU. She conducts a general course in political science and gives additional courses: Political Institutes and Processes in Modern Russia, Conflictology, and Political Parties. She received the degree of Doctor of Political Science in 2003 from Moscow State Social University. A theme of scientific research is the comparative analysis of electoral systems. Sosina is the author of several books and academic articles on the issues of the Russian electoral system, political parties and political culture. She has participated in the IDL program since 2003, and has taught IDL 103 and 104.

Mikhail Strakhov is currently an assistant of the Department of Sociology of Saratov State University. Along with teaching he is also working on his candidate's thesis in Sociology. His research interests include Methods of Sociological Research, Sociology of Organizations, Political Sociology and other fields.

Mikhail graduated from Sociology Department of Saratov State University in 2001, and entered postgraduate studies program in the field of Sociology. In 2002 he became a participant of the exchange program between Saratov State University and the University of Wyoming and spent the academic year of 2002-2003 at the Survey Research Center of the University of Wyoming. Mikhail became an instructor of IDL 103 and IDL 104 courses at Saratov State University in the fall semester of 2003.

Andrey N. Subochev is a lecturer at the Department of Applied Political Science (Chair of Political Theory), State University – Higher School of Economics (Moscow) and works as an instructor for SIIS/IDL from the beginning of MHSE's participation in the program in March, 2002.

He graduated from Moscow State University (Department of Physics) with Diploma cum laude in Physics in 1996; then entered the M.S. program of the State University – Higher School of Economics (Moscow) in 1997, where he received his M.S. degree in Sociology in 1999 and was subsequently offered a position at the Department of Applied Political Science.

Mr. Subochev's scientific interests focus on four major fields: 1) globalisation and its implications for national and international politics, anti-globalist movement, emergence of informational society; 2) CIS politics; 3) mathematical models and methods in political science and other social sciences; 4) epistemology and its relationship with social sciences.

He has published several texts: on post-Soviet space integration processes and Russian federalism as their factor, on phenomenon of anti-globalism, on neo-Eurasian movement. He has also made a number of scientific translations including two chapters from Manuel Castell’s trilogy "Informational Age: Economy, Society and Culture" for the first (and only) Russian edition of this book (grant of “Open Society” Institute).

Nadezhda Vasyutina is an instructor at the Urals State University for Stanford University’s Initiative on Distance Learning Program. In addition, she is a teacher of English at the department of International Relations and a post-graduate student of English Literature. Vasyutina also lectures on theoretical linguistics and medieval Western literature. She is a graduate of the department of Germanic Philology, USU (2003). In 1998 Vasyutina received a FSA/FLEX fellowship to study in the United States. Her fields of scholarly interest include poststructuralist British fiction, colonial writing, medieval gender studies, and environmental studies.

Tamerlan Zaseyev was born on January 20, 1978. In 1994 he graduated of Lunacharski Secondary School No. 5 with advanced learning of English (Vladikavkaz, Republic of North Ossetia-Alania, Russia). He then became a Freedom Support Act / FLEX exchange student in 1994-1995, graduating from Hueneme High School (CA, USA). From 1995–2000 he was a student of Faculty of International Relations of North Ossetia State University, and received his diploma with honors in teaching and translating of English and Spanish languages.

From 2000-2002 he worked as a teacher of English free course at the Faculties of Journalism and History of NOSU (teaching foreign press, countries study, idioms in English language, listening, “news/movies watching”, creative writing). 2001-to present he has worked as a staff member of the International Office of NOSU (development of projects proposals, projects coordination, students exchange, correspondence). In 2004 he successfully completed the IDL 104 course, and in 2004 began working as instructor of IDL 101 and IDL 104 at NOSU. 2005–to present, he has worked as a consultant in the Office of Vice Chairman of the Government of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania (international projects, staff member of State Institution Special Fund “Revival of Beslan”). Other activities: 2000 to present – assistant to North-Ossetian Republican Drug Rehabilitation Center (fund-raising and foreign partner search).