Sergey Aleksashenko leads NEST Centre’s (London, UK) research on economic issues and is an expert on the economies of Russia and Ukraine, focusing on macroeconomic issues and structural transformation post-USSR. Aleksashenko holds a doctorate in economics from the Central Economic and Mathematical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences. He served as First Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank of Russia (1995-1998) and Russian Deputy Minister of Finance (1993-1995). From 2000 to 2008, he was in the private business, managing director at Interros Holding, President and CEO Merrill Lynch Russia. From 2008 to 2014, he was Director of Macroeconomic Research at the Higher School of Economics (Moscow, Russia) as well as being a member of the Expert Council of the Government of Russia, and a board member of several Russian public companies. Aleksashenko was a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution (2015-2019) and contributed to Alexey Navalny’s presidential program (2017-2018). From 2019 to 2021, he advised the Prime Minister, Minister of Finance, and Chairman of the National Bank of Ukraine.