Alexander Elder

Alexander Elder, a native of Leningrad who was raised in Estonia, was a ship’s doctor when he defected from the Soviet Union in 1973 and received political asylum in the United States. He has since worked as a psychiatrist and financial trader and has traveled extensively throughout the former Soviet Union since its 1991 demise. The following viewpoint is excerpted from his book From Rubles to Dollars, a guide to investing in Russia. Elder argues that Russians have succeeded remarkably in reversing a centuries-old tradition of autocratic rule. He describes the political upheavals Russia experienced in the 1990s and contends that Russia is a much freer and more open society compared with the totalitarian Soviet regime. Fears that Russia will revert to a dictatorship are unfounded, he concludes...