Sufian Zhemukhov is a Senior Research Associate at George Washington University's Institute of European, Russian and Eurasian Studies. His recent books are Mass Religious Ritual and Intergroup Tolerance: The Muslim Pilgrims’ Paradox. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017 (with Mikhail A. Alexseev) and Putin’s Olympics: The Sochi Games and the Evolution of Twenty-First Century Russia. London: Routledge, 2017 (with Robert W. Orttung).