Dr Fabian Burkhardt

affiliated researcher

burkhardt@ios-regensburg.de

 

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Research Interests

•  Political Institutions and Elites in the Russian Federation
• Political Systems of post-Soviet Countries
• Comparative Authoritarianism
• Digital Politics in Authoritarian Regimes
   

Education and Academic Positions

since 2025: Senior Researcher in the Department of Politics at the Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies, Regensburg

2022: Visiting Fellow, Centre for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies, Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, University of Toronto

2020-2025: Research Fellow in the Political Science Junior Research Group at the Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies, Regensburg / co-editor of Russland-Analysen and Ukraine-Analysen

2019-2020: Associate, Eastern Europe and Eurasia Division, German Institute for International and Security Affairs

2018-2019: Postdoctoral fellow, International Center for the Study of Institutions and Development, National Research University "Higher School of Economics" (Moscow)

2018: conclusion of doctoral studies at the University of Bremen, doctoral project conducted at the Research Centre: Presidential power and institutional change: A study on the presidency of the Russian Federation

2017: Fellow, Research Division Eastern Europe and Eurasia, German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP)

2016-2017: Scholarship holder, Graduate School for East and Southeast European Studies, Munich (funded by DFG)

2013-2016: Research Associate, Graduate School for East and Southeast European Studies, LMU Munich (funded by DFG)

2012-2016: Member, Research Network Constitutional Politics in Central and Eastern Europe

2012-2013: Research Associate, Geschwister Scholl Institute of Political Science, LMU Munich, Research Network Institutions and Institutional Change in Postsocialism (funded by the BMBF)

Other Functions

since 2020: editor of Russland-Analysen and Ukraine-Analysen, since 2023: editor of the Russian Analytical Digest

since 2025: Editorial Board Member, Post-Soviet Affairs

since 2024: Data Curator for the Category "Elites", Discuss Data

since 2023: Non-resident Associate Fellow, Center for Order and Governance in Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia, German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP)

since 2023: Editorial Board Member, Ukrainian Analytical Digest

since 2022: Co-Speaker, Politics and Social Sciences Section, German Association for East European Studies (DGO)

2024: Country Expert for Ukraine, Citizenship in a Wider Europe (CitWidE), Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute, Florence

2024: Country anchor for the Republic of Moldova, Democratic Accountability and Linkages Project (DALP II), Duke University



Publications

Edited volume

A Successful Failure. Russia after Crime(a), Warsaw: The Centre for Polish-Russian Dialogue and Understanding, 2017, 241 pages (with Anton Barbashin, Olga Irisova, Ernest Wyciszkiewicz).


Articles in academic journals (peer-reviewed)

Digital ballots, partisan bias: digital authoritarianism and support for internet voting in Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine, in: Democratization, 33 (1), 2026, pp. 40-61 (with Jan Matti Dollbaum).

Can Germany learn from Ukraine? Resilience in a time of polycrisis, in: Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe, 2025.

Lukashenka's Constitutional Plebiscite and the Polarization of Belarusian Society, in: Communist and Post-Communist Studies, 56 (3), 2023, pp. 98-126 (with Jan Matti Dollbaum).

Institutionalising Authoritarian Presidencies: Polymorphous Power and Russia's Presidential Administration, in: Europe-Asia Studies, 73 (3), 2021, pp. 472-504.

Institutionalizing Personalism: The Russian Presidency after Constitutional Changes, in: Russian Politics, 6 (1), 2021, pp. 50-70.

The Tail Wagging the Dog? Top-Down and Bottom-Up Explanations for Bureaucratic Appointments in Authoritarian Regimes, in: Russian Politics, 3 (2), 2018, pp. 239-259 (with Alexander Libman).

The Institutionalization of Relative Advantage: Formal Institutions, Subconstitutional Presidential Powers, and the Rise of Authoritarian Politics in Russia, 1994-2012, in: Post-Soviet Affairs, 33 (6), 2017, pp. 472-495.


Chapters in Edited Volumes

Exekutiv-legislative Beziehungen in der Ukraine, in: M. Dobbins (Ed.): Das politische System der Ukraine, Wiesbaden: Springer VS, 2025, pp. 37-73 (with Olga Mashtaler).

Presidential Power in Putin’s Third Term: Was Crimea a Critical Juncture in Domestic Politics? in: A. Barbashin/ F. Burkhardt/O. Irisova/E. Wyciszkiewicz (Eds.): A Successful Failure. Russia after Crime(a), Warsaw: The Centre for Polish-Russian Dialogue and Understanding, 2017, pp. 119-141.

Constitutional politics in Belarus, in: A. Fruhstorfer/M. Hein (Hg.): Constitutional Politics in Central and Eastern Europe. Between Stability and Change, Wiesbaden: Springer VS, 2016, p. 463-493.

Concepts of the Nation and Legitimation in Belarus, in: M. Brusis/J. Ahrens/M. Schulze Wessel (Hg.): Politics and Legitimacy in Post‐Soviet Eurasia, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015, p. 148-171.
 

Articles in Journals and Online Publications (without peer review)

How Putin Rules Russia's Nomenklatura, in: Russian Analytical Digest, No. 329, 2025 (with Maiia Guseva, Timofei Mikhasev, Alexandra Vaisberg and Mariia Zheleznova).

The State of Citizenship in Ukraine, in: Country Report, RSC/GLOBALCIT-CR 2025/12: Global Citizenship Observatory (GLOBALCIT), Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute, 2025 (with Ganohariti Ramesh).

The Four Modi of Russia's Forced Naturalization of Ukrainians: "Passportization" and its Implications for Transitional Justice, in: Ukrainian Analytical Digest, No. 3, 2023, pp. 13-24.

Digital Authoritarianism and Russia's War Against Ukraine: How Sanctions-induced Infrastructural Disruptions are
Reshaping Russia's Repressive Capacities, in: SAIS Review of International Affairs, 42 (2), 2022, pp. 21-43 (with Mariëlle Wijermars).

Passports as Pretext: How Russia's Invasion of Ukraine Could Start, in: War on the Rocks, February 2022.

Passportization, in: Verfassungsblog, March 2022 (with Elia Bescotti, Cindy Wittke).

The Fog of War and Power Dynamics in Russia's Elite: Defections and Purges, or Simply Wishful Thinking?, in: Russian Analytical Digest, No. 281, 2022.

Belarus Votes - Or Not: Lukashenka's Constitutional Reform from the Public's Perspective, in: ZOiS Spotlight 6/2022, 2022 (with Jan Matti Dollbaum).

Passportization, Diminished Citizenship Rights, and the Donbas Vote in Russia's 2021 Duma Elections, TCUP Report, Temerty Contemporary Ukraine Program, Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University, 2022 (with Elia Bescotti, Cindy Wittke).

Foolproofing Putinism, or Why Mikhail Mishustin Might Be One of the Most Ambitious Prime Ministers in Recent Russian History, in: Russian Analytical Digest, No. 266, 2021.

Russia's "Passportization" of the Donbas. The Mass Naturalisation of Ukrainians Is More Than a Foreign Policy Tool, in: SWP-Comment, 2020/C 41, June 2020, 8 pages.

Moldova - Key Challenges and Political Developments, in: Südosteuropa Mitteilungen, 60 (1-2), 2020, pp. 147-159 (conference report).

Rebooting the State Council Increases Putin's Power, Chatham House, October 2020 (with Ben Noble, Nikolay Petrov).