From 1995 to 1997, he was on leave to work as assistant director of research at the Open Media Research Institute. This article draws on interviews in Moscow in August and September 1996 with Aleksandr Meshcherskii, Aleksandr Tsipko, Aleksei Kara-Murza, Masha Gessen, Leokadiya Drobizheva, and Vladimir Gimpelson, and on later conversations with Vitalii Naukim, Vladimir Mau, and Oleg Witte.