dr. ariel cohen. >> thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. it is my particular pleasure to welcome you to the heritage foundation. it's a pleasure because i always admire people who have courage to speak truth to power. it is not easy in any society. it is particularly not easy in today's russia. ilia could have a wonderful life in russia. he was the youngest president of the ukus oil company. at the age of 24 he worked for multi-national oil services companies. he is extremely gifted as a youngster, as a 14-year-old he was teaching computers in the soviet nuclear physics institute to the old guys who didn't know at the time about pcs. so either a career of a conformist politician or a businessman would have saved ilia a lot of trouble. instead, he decided to take principle stances. he was the only one in the duma who voted against the so-called gay propaganda law and most importantly he voted against the annexation of the crimea. that took a lot of courage. ilia worked in this country in high tech. he has a background in investment and, as i

dr. ariel cohen. [applause] >> thank you very much ladies and gentlemen. it is my particular pleasure to welcome ilya ponomarev to the heritage foundation. it is a pleasure because i always admire people who have courage to speak truth to power. it is not easy in any society. it is particularly not easy in today's russia. ilya ponomarev could have a wonderful life in russia. he was the youngest president of the company back in the 90s at the age of 24. he worked for multinational oil services companies. he is extremely gifted as a youngster's 14-year-old he was teaching computers in the soviet nuclear physics institute to the old guys who didn't know at that time about pcs. so either a career of a conformist politician or a businessman would have saved him a lot of trouble. instead, he decided to take principled stances. he was the only one in the duma who voted against the so-called propaganda law and most importantly he voted against it the annexation of the crimea. and that took a lot of courage. he worked in this country in high-tech. he has a backgrou