As a part of the Days of Tolerance in St. Petersburg, there was the public lecture by the Research Director of the Moscow office of the Kennan Institute and professor of the State University Higher School of Economics, Emil Pain.

Before the lecture there was the presentation of the book "1989-2009-2029. 20 Years ago, 20 Years ahead - Young Liberal Ideas" by Mr. Sacha Tamm (Friedrich Naumann Foundation)

Emil Pain is one of the pioneers in Russia of a new academic discipline: Ethno-Political Science. A Doctor of Political Science, professor, and author of  13 books and more than 400 articles on the problems of the relations between Russian republics and the Federal center, ethnic and religious extremism in Russia, ethnic conflicts, migration, and the theory of the transition of Russia from an empire to a nation-state. He is the General Director of  the Center of Ethnic and Regional Studies and a professor in the Department of

Applied Political Science at the State University Higher School of Economics. Since 2008, he has been the Research Director of the Kennan Institute. He was an adviser to the President of the Russian Federation from 1996-1999, and in 2000 was the first laureate of the Galina Starovoytova Prize in Regional Management. In 2004 the international foundation “Tolerance” awarded him a gold medal for “distinguished services in the realm of sociological and historical research dealing with the resolution of ethnic conflicts in Russian regions”.