David White

I have been a member of Centre for Russian, European and Eurasian Studies since 2000, formerly as a PhD student and, since 2003 as a member of the academic staff.

My broad research interests are in the dynamics between power and opposition in authoritarian and semi-authoritarian regimes, democratisation in contemporary Europe and Russian domestic politics, particularly the evolution of the party system and specifically the development of the liberal-democratic and opposition forces.

My most recent research project, funded by the ESRC, analysed political opposition strategies to the Medvedev-Putin regime and involved two periods of fieldwork in Moscow involving interviews with leading opposition actors, party and civil society activists and political analysts. Given the unprecedented opposition protests in Russia following the parliamentary elections of December 2011, such research is certainly timely. In April 2013 I was awarded a small British Academy to continue this research.

Combined with my earlier PhD research on the Yabloko party I have developed a network of contacts with the Russian democratic opposition (broadly defined). Today's opposition, of course, may be tomorrow's political leaders, even in an electoral authoritarian system such as Russia!