Life and Work in Post-Soviet Russia

Life and Work in Post-Soviet Russia revolves around the professional and personal experience of living and working in Moscow of a Singapore diplomat, beginning in the aftermath of the USSR's collapse and ending in the first decade-and-a-half of this century. The book seeks to provide readers with glimpses of life in Moscow and Russia in the mid-1990s, as well as in the early years of this century. It deals with not only the sociopolitical and economic challenges of Russia's post-Soviet leaders, but also those facing the man-in-the-street. That the man-in-the-street had to personally bear the brunt of the momentous changes in post-Soviet Russia's rush to reforms is made plain in the book, and not so much the trials and tribulations of his leaders. Life and Work in Post-Soviet Russia also looks to broaden the outlook of Singaporeans, in the first instance, and non-Russians, in general, about Russia, a country which has been portrayed in a negative light by most of the Anglo-Saxon and Western media. This book also gives readers some insight into Singapore's relations with Russia, deals with issues from a personal standpoint without any attempt to inject political science theories into its analyses, and concludes with some thoughts on its future role in the world.

Chris Cheang is a Senior Fellow in the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore.

His work revolves around Eurasia, with Russia as the focus. He has written several commentaries in this connection. Some of them have appeared in publications like the East Asia Forum and regional dailies like The New Straits Times. His views on Russia and its relations with the Asia-Pacific region have also been cited in the South China Morning Post and the Eurasia Expert, a Russian information and analytical journal.

A former career diplomat, Chris Cheang served in the Singapore Embassies in Bonn, Germany, as First Secretary from 1983–1987, and subsequently in Moscow in the capacity of First Secretary from 1994–1997. He later assumed the position of Counsellor and Deputy Chief of Mission between 1999 and 2013 in the Embassy in Moscow. He headed the Singapore Consulate-General in San Francisco from 2013 till his retirement in 2017 and entered the employ of RSIS thereafter.

He has an excellent command of German, and is relatively fluent in Russian. He also understands and speaks some Polish.