Getting a Ph.D. in Moscow just got a little easier for students of U.S.-Russian relations. The American University in Moscow has announced that it will open a graduate school of political science and economics.

Edward Lozansky, a former Soviet nuclear physicist and dissident who was exiled to the West for distributing anti-Soviet literature, founded the university 12 years ago. It was the first private business school in Russia.

In 1990, Lozansky had two prominent personalities to help him with this project: Yury Ossipyan, former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev's science adviser, and Gavriil Popov, then-mayor of Moscow and vice-president of the Soviet Academy of Sciences.

The American University in Moscow became a popular school for young Russians. Engineers and scientists who wanted to get practical guidance on how to start their own businesses were particularly drawn to it.

Lozansky was able to raise some funds from private sources, including half a million dollars from the "Good-Bye Communism" gala in the Kremlin in December of 1991. The media in the United States and Russia loved the story. There were articles in the New York Times, the Washington Post and Russia's Izvestia daily.

A congratulatory letter from the White House, signed by then-vice-president Dan Quayle on behalf of President George Bush Sr., caught the attention of official Washington. Quayle visited the university during his trip to Moscow. Lozansky, Popov and Ossipyan were invited to the White House. The State Department encouraged them to write a multi-million-dollar funding proposal. When the Republicans lost the White House, the effort to help the American University in Moscow stalled a bit. This was hardly surprising, since Lozansky is known in Washington for his right-wing views and connections. His long time friend and powerful ally, Paul Weyrich, president of the Free Congress Foundation – an archconservative group – was not a Clinton administration crony.

The Republicans are back, and the university is trying to make a second run for U.S. funding. Many members of Congress support this project, and 142 of them signed the document "New Time, New Beginning" prepared by their colleague Congressman Curt Weldon. The document lists funding for the American University in Moscow among the top priority U.S.-Russian cooperation projects.

On May 26, Weldon and several other members of Congress will be visiting the university headquarters in Moscow. They are expected to announce their support for funding of the new graduate department.

According to Lozansky, the graduate school will enroll Russian Ph.D. candidates with two advisers, one Russian and one American. Dissertation themes must be on U.S.-Russian relations. A consortium of major Russian and American universities and colleges are expected to oversee the program.

On the Russian side, leading schools such as the Moscow Institute of International Relations, Moscow State University, the Institute of Sociology, Social and Political Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Institute of United States and Canada have joined.

On the American side, the University of Maryland and the University of Pittsburgh and Waynesburg College in Pennsylvania have expressed interest.