European Contexts Online Background Conversation
With
Nikolai Petrov, a prominent Russian political scientist and geographer
specializing in Russian domestic politics and regional development. He
is Head of Analysis of Transformation Processes at the New Eurasian
Strategies Centre (NEST Centre) and a consulting fellow at Chatham
House, London.
When: Monday, 14 September 2026, 9:30–10:30 CEST
Where: Online
Please register HERE.
Background
The
Russian Federation will hold elections to the State Duma, its lower
house of parliament, from 18 to 20 September 2026. These will be the
first national parliamentary elections since Russia’s full-scale
invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The outcome of the elections is not
in doubt. President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party is expected to
win. Opposition politicians are either in exile or barred from
participating, and anti-war parties are not contesting the elections.
Do these elections matter?
Speaker
Nikolai
Petrov is a political expert specializing in Russian domestic politics
whose 40-year career has spanned academic research, politics, and
business.
At the NEST Centre, he leads work on Russian domestic
politics, including research on political elites and decision-making
processes.
Before joining the NEST Centre, he was a visiting
researcher at Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP) in Berlin, where
he focused on Russian domestic politics, its impact on foreign policy,
and the workings of Russia’s political regime. He is also a consulting
fellow with the Russia and Eurasia Programme at Chatham House in London,
where he previously served as a senior research fellow from 2019 to
2022.
From 2013 to 2021, Petrov was a professor and Head of the
Laboratory for Regional Development Assessment Methods at the Higher
School of Economics in Moscow.
Full CV
Selected Recent publications
Moderator
Mirjana Tomic, fjum / Presseclub Concordia
Format
Moderated conversation followed by a live Q&A.
Target Audience
Journalists, media professionals, and researchers.
Maximum number of participants: 100