ECONOMY
The Satinsky Archive: Documenting How US and Western Businesspeople Helped Build the Post-Soviet Russian Economy
November 4, 2025
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Ivan Grek
Director of the Russia Program at the George Washington University
Any realistic policy ought to acknowledge that Russia is a market society – one whose economic resilience and internal complexity are, in no small part, tied to Western and especially US contributions in the 1990s. As tensions between Russia and the US hit new lows, few remember that much of modern Russian life was actually built on American ideas. The Satinsky Archive, a project of the Russia Program at GWU, uncovers this untold story through interviews with US businesspeople, investors and consultants who took part in Russia’s post-Soviet transformation.
Amid the growing cultural distance and political tension between the US and Russia, it is easy to forget the profound, often invisible links that still connect the two nations. Despite sharp differences in foreign policy and national narratives, Russians live in a world shaped in no small part by American ideas, systems and habits. From FM radio to stock markets, from movie theaters to pizza chains, the daily routines of millions of Russians are built upon a foundation first laid by US businesspeople during the transformative 1990s in Russia. Not only has this taken root, but it has been thoroughly rebranded and Russianized. For example, US-built food courts now feature traditional cuisines of post-Soviet states made fast, while US-founded comedy channels stream Russian sitcoms. Russians are often unaware of this paradox. As for Americans, they do not easily see their mark, as content and form have both been localized following the early investments in the post-Soviet Russian economy.
The emergence of a market economy in post-Soviet Russia was a result not solely of domestic reforms or supportive Western policy – it was also profoundly shaped by thousands of individual US businesspeople, legal advisors, investors, development experts and others who worked directly with Russian counterparts during the 1990s and early 2000s. This person-to-person engagement helped mold the Russian economy particularly in media, finance, real estate and IT. Indeed, it was, in my view, as central to the country’s transformation as high geopolitics and other common frameworks.
Now, thanks to the Satinsky Archive, a special project at the George Washington University Russia Program, we can reconstruct a more granular history of US investment in post-Soviet Russia. The archive is composed of first-person interviews with US and Russian government officials, businesspeople, “citizen diplomats” and consultants, who reflect strands of US and foreign participation in late-Gorbachev-era reforms and the turbulent Yeltsin transformation. The purpose of the Satinsky Archive is to preserve the history of this period as a contribution to understanding contemporary Russia.
The emergence of a market economy in post-Soviet Russia was a result not solely of domestic reforms or supportive Western policy – it was also profoundly shaped by thousands of individual US businesspeople, legal advisors, investors, development experts and others who worked directly with Russian counterparts during the 1990s and early 2000s. This person-to-person engagement helped mold the Russian economy particularly in media, finance, real estate and IT. Indeed, it was, in my view, as central to the country’s transformation as high geopolitics and other common frameworks.
Now, thanks to the Satinsky Archive, a special project at the George Washington University Russia Program, we can reconstruct a more granular history of US investment in post-Soviet Russia. The archive is composed of first-person interviews with US and Russian government officials, businesspeople, “citizen diplomats” and consultants, who reflect strands of US and foreign participation in late-Gorbachev-era reforms and the turbulent Yeltsin transformation. The purpose of the Satinsky Archive is to preserve the history of this period as a contribution to understanding contemporary Russia.
CTC Media advertisment
Maksim Stulov / Vedomosti
Maksim Stulov / Vedomosti
Not to be overlooked, music played a role in Russia’s transformation. In 1991, Peter Gerwe, a Californian media executive who made venture investments in Russia, cofounded Radio Maximum, the first Russian FM music station broadcasting on the newly opened 88-108 MHz band. Its first day was the Soviet Union’s last. Radio Maximum opted not for political programming, but for Western rock. Gerwe later launched CTC Media, Russia’s first national entertainment TV network, modeled on the US affiliate system. Within a year, it reached 85% of Russian households. Serialized, youth-focused TV became standard in Russia. Few viewers realize that their beloved CTC shows trace back to Gerwe.
The same pattern played out in the food industry. Henrik Winther, a Danish-American businessperson, in the early 1990s launched chains like Patio Pizza, US Bar & Grill and even Rostik’s (a fried chicken shop that many Russians once mistook for a local establishment). The restaurant culture now taken for granted by Moscow’s middle class was a US invention naturalized in post-Soviet soil.
With virtually no logistics, training or supply chains in place, Winther and his team built one of Russia’s first scalable restaurant networks, through the holding company Rosinter Restaurants, from scratch. They trained thousands of managers and introduced Western service standards, kitchen systems and even Caesar salad. As Winther recounted in his interview, “every restaurant in Russia today has a Caesar salad on the menu. It’s a pretty popular salad worldwide, sure, but it’s not on every menu in America. It all started because our very first Moscow restaurant featured a Caesar salad and the idea stuck everywhere.”
The same pattern played out in the food industry. Henrik Winther, a Danish-American businessperson, in the early 1990s launched chains like Patio Pizza, US Bar & Grill and even Rostik’s (a fried chicken shop that many Russians once mistook for a local establishment). The restaurant culture now taken for granted by Moscow’s middle class was a US invention naturalized in post-Soviet soil.
With virtually no logistics, training or supply chains in place, Winther and his team built one of Russia’s first scalable restaurant networks, through the holding company Rosinter Restaurants, from scratch. They trained thousands of managers and introduced Western service standards, kitchen systems and even Caesar salad. As Winther recounted in his interview, “every restaurant in Russia today has a Caesar salad on the menu. It’s a pretty popular salad worldwide, sure, but it’s not on every menu in America. It all started because our very first Moscow restaurant featured a Caesar salad and the idea stuck everywhere.”
Moscow Exchange
Evgeniy Messman / TASS
Evgeniy Messman / TASS
Finance followed the same pattern as the US impact on the restaurant industry. Fred Berliner, a Wall Street veteran, came to Moscow in 1994 to help build the country’s first electronic stock exchange: the Russian Trading System. Modeled on the Nasdaq, it professionalized share-trading in the chaotic post-voucher economy. Berliner also mentored Russia’s first generation of traders, teaching market ethics and modern finance. Today’s Moscow Exchange, a symbol of Russia’s financial sovereignty, ironically rests on this foundation, laid by an American.
Meanwhile, the idea of a Russian internet was born abroad. In 1986, Joel Schatz, a businessperson working in the tech sector, established the first internet link between the US and USSR via the so-called San Francisco/Moscow Teleport. This facilitated email, “spacebridges” and global business operations. The Runet has since flourished, becoming a vast, self-contained ecosystem. Yet it got its start by way of a US satellite.
Culture and leisure, too, reflect this little-understood US legacy. Paul Heth, a Hollywood aficionado and former soldier, arrived in Moscow in 1993 with only a few hundred dollars and a deep belief in the power of entertainment to bring people together. He saw an opportunity in a city and country where the moviegoing experience had declined into near irrelevance, with dilapidated Soviet theaters, poor sound quality and minimal distribution infrastructure. Working first with Kodak and later with National Amusements, Heth launched Russia's first modern multiplex cinemas, starting with Kodak Kinomir and eventually expanding to Kinostar and Karo Film. Years earlier, in the early 1990s, Dolby sound, popcorn concessions or blockbusters had hardly been imaginable to most Russians.
“We opened Russia’s first Western-style multiplex cinema in 1996. The biggest challenge was piracy, piracy, piracy. Beyond that, everything was an obstacle: lack of film distribution, no modern theaters, no habit of going out to movies. We literally had to reinvent the moviegoing culture from scratch,” Heth told the Satinsky Archive.
Indeed, it was Heth who built the commercial and cultural infrastructure for a rebirth of cinema as a social institution. His venues showed both Hollywood movies and Russian-made films, helping to revitalize domestic production. By the early 2000s, Heth’s cinemas had helped make Russia the top film market in Europe by box office admissions.
Meanwhile, the idea of a Russian internet was born abroad. In 1986, Joel Schatz, a businessperson working in the tech sector, established the first internet link between the US and USSR via the so-called San Francisco/Moscow Teleport. This facilitated email, “spacebridges” and global business operations. The Runet has since flourished, becoming a vast, self-contained ecosystem. Yet it got its start by way of a US satellite.
Culture and leisure, too, reflect this little-understood US legacy. Paul Heth, a Hollywood aficionado and former soldier, arrived in Moscow in 1993 with only a few hundred dollars and a deep belief in the power of entertainment to bring people together. He saw an opportunity in a city and country where the moviegoing experience had declined into near irrelevance, with dilapidated Soviet theaters, poor sound quality and minimal distribution infrastructure. Working first with Kodak and later with National Amusements, Heth launched Russia's first modern multiplex cinemas, starting with Kodak Kinomir and eventually expanding to Kinostar and Karo Film. Years earlier, in the early 1990s, Dolby sound, popcorn concessions or blockbusters had hardly been imaginable to most Russians.
“We opened Russia’s first Western-style multiplex cinema in 1996. The biggest challenge was piracy, piracy, piracy. Beyond that, everything was an obstacle: lack of film distribution, no modern theaters, no habit of going out to movies. We literally had to reinvent the moviegoing culture from scratch,” Heth told the Satinsky Archive.
Indeed, it was Heth who built the commercial and cultural infrastructure for a rebirth of cinema as a social institution. His venues showed both Hollywood movies and Russian-made films, helping to revitalize domestic production. By the early 2000s, Heth’s cinemas had helped make Russia the top film market in Europe by box office admissions.
Independent Media’s glossy magazines
Cosmopolitan/Esquire/Harper's Bazaar
Cosmopolitan/Esquire/Harper's Bazaar
In publishing, Derk Sauer's launch of Cosmopolitan Russia in 1994 can be said to have redefined gender roles and consumer culture.
“We launched Moscow Magazine in 1990. It was the first glossy magazine in Russia – basically a New York Magazine-style publication. The content was great, but as a business it was doomed: we printed in the Netherlands in hard currency and sold copies in rubles during hyperinflation. The rubles we earned were worthless by the time they arrived. It was an early lesson that capitalism in Russia was going to be complicated,” Sauer recalled.
The runaway success of Cosmopolitan Russia (a million copies sold a month) spawned an entire industry, from fashion photographers to modern advertising agencies. Sauer's Independent Media company brought Harper’s Bazaar, Men’s Health and Playboy, shaping a generation's identity and aspirations. Sauer also set up Vedomosti and the Moscow Times, two groundbreaking, professional sources of coverage of the Russian economy and politics.
Even wellness carries US DNA. Bernard Sucher, a businessperson and ex-Wall Street banker, arrived in Moscow in the early 1990s and realized one thing was missing from the rapidly transforming capital: a modern gym. The only ones in the city were either poorly equipped remnants of the Soviet sports system or exclusive hotel clubs with exorbitant membership fees. Frustrated by the lack of options, Sucher took matters into his own hands and opened the Moscow Beach Club in 1995, one of the city’s first Western-style gyms. Sucher’s ventures, which quickly became popular both among expats and among forward-leaning Russians, were later absorbed into Planet Fitness and contributed to the World Class chain – now the country’s largest fitness brand. As for Sucher, he moved on to other ventures in finance and dining. Today, fitness culture is mainstream in Russia, especially in urban Russia. The cultural shift that preceded this began, in part, with Sucher’s entrepreneurial vision to build something where nothing had existed previously.
Each of these stories, drawn from the Satinsky Archive, underscores a profound paradox: while the official Russian rhetoric rejects Western influence as harmful to Russia, Russian society remains saturated with it. The radio Russians listen to, the pizzerias they visit, the sitcoms they watch, as well as their stock portfolios and their gyms, all grew from US roots before changing to adapt to the local reality.
“I will not claim I am proud of everything we did – look at where Russia is now politically – but it’s clear that what we built in the 1990s laid the foundation for whatever better future might still emerge. If Russia ever bends back toward a healthier society that puts people’s welfare first, the groundwork we laid in the 1990s will have been central to that,” Sucher concludes.
Understanding this legacy matters. Russia today is not the early-post-Soviet society that was infatuated with capitalism and Western goods, services, institutions and infrastructure. Yet there was a time, after the Soviet collapse, when Western investors helped fill the void and supported the creation of a society capable of aligning itself with global norms. That society has since internalized, localized and built upon those investments and efforts. There remains debate over whether Russia was destined to end up where it is now, or whether this was just one of many possible historical paths. But what is certain is that private citizens of the US and other Western states laid the foundation for Russia’s modernity.
Recognizing this should be foundational for future dialogue about US-Russia relations. Since the Soviet collapse, Russia has been deeply integrated into global markets and has actually leveraged its global links to build back its industrial base, absorb external shocks like sanctions and reinvent sectors of its economy. Whether relations deteriorate further or shift toward renewed engagement, any realistic policy ought to acknowledge that Russia is a market society – one whose economic resilience and internal complexity are, in no small part, tied to Western and especially US contributions in the 1990s. There will be no repeat of that decade in the foreseeable future, but its legacy lives on, and will live on, in ways both subtle and profound.
“We launched Moscow Magazine in 1990. It was the first glossy magazine in Russia – basically a New York Magazine-style publication. The content was great, but as a business it was doomed: we printed in the Netherlands in hard currency and sold copies in rubles during hyperinflation. The rubles we earned were worthless by the time they arrived. It was an early lesson that capitalism in Russia was going to be complicated,” Sauer recalled.
The runaway success of Cosmopolitan Russia (a million copies sold a month) spawned an entire industry, from fashion photographers to modern advertising agencies. Sauer's Independent Media company brought Harper’s Bazaar, Men’s Health and Playboy, shaping a generation's identity and aspirations. Sauer also set up Vedomosti and the Moscow Times, two groundbreaking, professional sources of coverage of the Russian economy and politics.
Even wellness carries US DNA. Bernard Sucher, a businessperson and ex-Wall Street banker, arrived in Moscow in the early 1990s and realized one thing was missing from the rapidly transforming capital: a modern gym. The only ones in the city were either poorly equipped remnants of the Soviet sports system or exclusive hotel clubs with exorbitant membership fees. Frustrated by the lack of options, Sucher took matters into his own hands and opened the Moscow Beach Club in 1995, one of the city’s first Western-style gyms. Sucher’s ventures, which quickly became popular both among expats and among forward-leaning Russians, were later absorbed into Planet Fitness and contributed to the World Class chain – now the country’s largest fitness brand. As for Sucher, he moved on to other ventures in finance and dining. Today, fitness culture is mainstream in Russia, especially in urban Russia. The cultural shift that preceded this began, in part, with Sucher’s entrepreneurial vision to build something where nothing had existed previously.
Each of these stories, drawn from the Satinsky Archive, underscores a profound paradox: while the official Russian rhetoric rejects Western influence as harmful to Russia, Russian society remains saturated with it. The radio Russians listen to, the pizzerias they visit, the sitcoms they watch, as well as their stock portfolios and their gyms, all grew from US roots before changing to adapt to the local reality.
“I will not claim I am proud of everything we did – look at where Russia is now politically – but it’s clear that what we built in the 1990s laid the foundation for whatever better future might still emerge. If Russia ever bends back toward a healthier society that puts people’s welfare first, the groundwork we laid in the 1990s will have been central to that,” Sucher concludes.
Understanding this legacy matters. Russia today is not the early-post-Soviet society that was infatuated with capitalism and Western goods, services, institutions and infrastructure. Yet there was a time, after the Soviet collapse, when Western investors helped fill the void and supported the creation of a society capable of aligning itself with global norms. That society has since internalized, localized and built upon those investments and efforts. There remains debate over whether Russia was destined to end up where it is now, or whether this was just one of many possible historical paths. But what is certain is that private citizens of the US and other Western states laid the foundation for Russia’s modernity.
Recognizing this should be foundational for future dialogue about US-Russia relations. Since the Soviet collapse, Russia has been deeply integrated into global markets and has actually leveraged its global links to build back its industrial base, absorb external shocks like sanctions and reinvent sectors of its economy. Whether relations deteriorate further or shift toward renewed engagement, any realistic policy ought to acknowledge that Russia is a market society – one whose economic resilience and internal complexity are, in no small part, tied to Western and especially US contributions in the 1990s. There will be no repeat of that decade in the foreseeable future, but its legacy lives on, and will live on, in ways both subtle and profound.
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