Alena Ledeneva (PhD Cantab) is Professor of Politics and Society at the University College London School of Slavonic and East European Studies, United Kingdom. She is an internationally renowned expert on informality and governance in Russia. Her books Russia's Economy of Favours: Blat, Networking, and Informal Exchange (Cambridge University Press, 1998), How Russia Really Works: Informal Practices in the 1990s (Cornell University Press, 2006), and Can Russia Modernize? Sistema, Power Networks and Informal Governance (Cambridge University Press, 2013) have become must-read sources in Russian studies and social sciences. She is the Founder of the Global Informality Project (www.in-formality.com) and has published two volumes of the Global Encyclopedia of Informality (UCL Press 2018). She has taken part in media productions such as BBC World Forums and is currently working on a BBC WC radio programme on Russia and informality. Contact: a.ledeneva@ucl.ac.uk