Political scientist and a senior researcher at the Levada Center, an independent polling and sociological research institution in Moscow. Visiting research fellow at the Imre Kertész Kolleg of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena in 2016; at the Federal Foundation for the Study of the SED Dictatorship in Berlin 2012–2013; and at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University in 2008.
Events in Ukraine have prompted the Kremlin to promote an official state ideology for the first time in post-Soviet history. The past takes on increased significance in legitimizing the regime, while attempts at critical historical reflection are actively repressed.