Andrew Carrigan Kuchins is an American political scientist, expert on Russian politics and Kremlinologist.
He is an internationally renowned expert on Russian foreign and domestic policies who publishes widely and is frequently called on by business, government, media, and academic leaders for comment and consulting on Russian and Eurasian affairs.

Kuchins was the Director of the Russian and Eurasian Program and a Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace is a foreign-policy think tank based in Washington, D.C. The organization describes itself as being dedicated to advancing cooperation between nations and promoting active international engagement by the United States...

 in Washington, DC. Previously, he was Director of the Carnegie Moscow Center. As of 2009, he holds this position at the Center for Strategic and International Studies

Center for Strategic and International Studies

The Center for Strategic and International Studies is a bipartisan Washington, D.C., foreign policy think tank. The center was founded in 1962 by Admiral Arleigh Burke and Ambassador David Manker Abshire, originally as part of Georgetown University...

.

In December 2007, Kuchins wrote a controversial report in which he developed a scenario where Vladimir Putin

Vladimir Putin

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...

could be killed before the Russian presidential elections in 2008: