Stanislav Shkel: A sovereign nation or souvenir people

Online seminar in New Perspectives on Russia and Eurasia, and Electoral Malpractice in Russia and Beyond series, on August 2021. Among the regions of Russia, many ethnic republics are distinguished by a higher level of electoral mobilization and political loyalty. However, in some of them recently, at the level of official statistics, a decrease in electoral support for incumbents from the titular ethnic groups has been recorded. Why is the stability of the political behavior of voters maintained in a number of ethnic republics, while in others there is volatility of this indicator Why do a number of ethnic republics consistently reproduce an electoral supermajority for incumbents, while others do not differ in this indicator from most Russian regions To answer these questions, the study uses both quantitative data from official statistics and original qualitative data collected by focus groups in five Russian republics: Bashkortostan, Tatarstan, Komi, Chuvashia, and Yakutia. The analysis of the col