Vera Kichanova

Vera Kichanova is an urban economist and policy researcher currently working on her dissertation about private cities at King’s College London. At the age of 20, she was elected to the Municipal Council in Moscow, becoming one of the youngest elected officials — and the first ever elected libertarian — in Russia. The Washington Post called her “the new face of Russia’s opposition”. After the Revolution of Dignity in Ukraine she moved to Kyiv to work for Atlas Network as Editor-in-chief at a Ukraine-based think tank focusing on post-Soviet countries. Vera is a regular panellist at international conferences, a Mont Pelerin Society member and the 2013 Democracy Award winner. Her comments were published by The Telegraph, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, Spiegel, CapX and FEE.org, among others. Vera has been with ESFL since 2014. She holds a Master of Public Policy degree from the University of Oxford and a BA in Journalism from Moscow State University.