Aleksandr Shokhin

Aleksandr Shokhin
Name	Aleksandr Shokhin
Native name	Александр Шохин
Birth date	1951-05-15
Birth place	Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Nationality	Russian
Occupation	Economist, Politician, Businessman
Alma mater	Moscow State University
Awards	Order "For Merit to the Fatherland"

Aleksandr Shokhin is a Russian economist, politician, and business figure who has held senior posts in state administration, advisory bodies, and private industry. He served in ministerial and deputy ministerial roles during the late Soviet and early post‑Soviet periods and later became a prominent leader of employer associations and academic institutions. Shokhin is noted for frequent participation in advisory councils of Vladimir Putin's administrations, involvement with Russian industrial groups, and commentary on macroeconomic policy.

Early life and education

Born in Moscow in 1951, Shokhin completed secondary schooling in the Soviet Union and entered Moscow State University where he studied economics at the Faculty of Economics. During his university years he was exposed to debates influenced by economists associated with Leonid Kantorovich and policy discussions shaped by the Council of Ministers. He later undertook postgraduate research that connected him to institutes within the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and to research networks tied to Gosplan analysts and scholars engaged with planning and market reform.

Business and academic career

Shokhin’s early professional trajectory moved between research institutes, industrial administration, and later advisory roles. He worked in economic research linked to the Institute of World Economy and International Relations and held positions with enterprises associated with the Ministry of Machine Tool Building. In the late 1980s and 1990s he transitioned to roles bridging state structures and private firms, collaborating with figures from Dmitry Medvedev's managerial circles and interacting with leadership at Gazprom, Rosneft, and major banking groups such as Sberbank and Vnesheconombank. As a business executive and board member, he engaged with corporate governance issues at companies that included industrial conglomerates and trade associations influenced by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation.

In academia and intellectual life, Shokhin contributed to journals and think tanks associated with Higher School of Economics scholars, members of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and policy forums that convened participants from Carnegie Moscow Center and the Russian International Affairs Council. He lectured on industrial policy, privatization processes, and regulatory reform alongside academics who worked on the Transition economies literature and on comparative studies with specialists from Harvard University, London School of Economics, and University of Chicago delegations visiting Russia.

Political career

Shokhin entered government service during a period of economic upheaval, holding posts in ministries responsible for industry and economic policy under the administrations of Mikhail Gorbachev and later Boris Yeltsin. He was appointed to deputy ministerial roles and served as Minister of Industry and Trade in the early post‑Soviet era, collaborating with officials in the Russian government and with deputies in the State Duma. Later he headed employer organizations, notably presiding over forums that interfaced with the President of Russia's advisory councils.

His political network spans relationships with ministers such as Yegor Gaidar, Viktor Chernomyrdin, and Aleksei Kudrin, and he participated in interagency working groups with representatives from the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, Ministry of Industry and Trade, and the Federal Assembly. Shokhin has also been active in the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs and in cross‑sector commissions that bring together legislators from the United Russia faction and opposition deputies from parties like LDPR and the Communist Party of the Russian Federation.

Policy positions and influence

Known for advocacy of market‑oriented reforms tempered by state industrial policy, Shokhin has promoted positions on trade liberalization, industrial consolidation, and support for domestic manufacturing that align with policy debates involving World Trade Organization accession, Eurasian economic integration, and import substitution programs. He has argued for regulatory frameworks balancing investor protection and strategic national interests, engaging publicly with issues debated by International Monetary Fund missions, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development experts, and domestic fiscal authorities.

Shokhin’s influence manifests through advisory roles in presidential councils, participation in business roundtables with leaders from Rosatom, Rostec, Lukoil, and through publications in outlets associated with the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA). He has supported employer‑driven social partnership models in dialogue with trade union leaders from organizations like the All‑Russia Confederation of Labour and has been cited in analyses by researchers at Chatham House and the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

Controversies and legal issues

Throughout his career Shokhin has been a figure in controversies common to Russia’s post‑Soviet privatization and corporate restructuring era. Allegations raised by business rivals and some investigative journalists have concerned links between political access and corporate outcomes that intersect with cases involving entities such as Yukos, Sibneft, and large banking groups during the 1990s and 2000s. His public positions have sometimes drawn criticism from opposition politicians in the State Duma and from commentators associated with Novaya Gazeta and The Moscow Times.

Legal scrutiny affecting contemporaries in his networks has included high‑profile trials and sanctions processes tied to actions by the Investigative Committee of Russia, asset disputes adjudicated in commercial courts, and international measures coordinated by governments in the European Union and United States Department of the Treasury. While Shokhin has not been the subject of the most prominent prosecutions, his name appears in reporting on elite networks debated in the contexts of anti‑corruption campaigns and regulatory investigations that also involved figures from Siloviki circles and major private corporations.

Category:Russian economists Category:1951 births Category:People from Moscow