Andrei Kolesnikov is an award-winning journalist, author, and political analyst, writing from within Russia. He was previously a senior fellow at the Carnegie Moscow Center. He has won many journalistic awards, including the Russian Golden Quill (Zolotoye Pero Rossii) Award, the Adam Smith Prize, and the 2021 Yegor Gaidar Award for outstanding contribution to the study of history.
""This book is not only an intellectual tour de force but also a document of the epoch, a testimony written by Jonah from the belly of the Leviathan. Kolesnikov's analytic acumen and a keen sense of Russian culture and history go hand in hand with civil courage."" Sergei Medvedev, Charles University, Prague, author of the Return of the Russian Leviathan and A War Made in Russia ""Andrei Kolesnikov possesses the rare gift of telling the truth with clarity and insight. The Closing of the Russian Mind stands out as one of the few accounts of Putin's Russia destined to endure the test of time."" Ivan Krastev, Chairman, Centre for Liberal Strategies, Sofia ""An important and serious analysis of the hitherto underexamined ideological basis of the contemporary Russian state. It is an extremely rich and skilful work that gives a brilliant insight into the nature of Russian official propaganda."" Andrei Zorin, University of Oxford