Pro-Regime Rallies as Signals of Autocrats’ Unpopularity? Survey Experimental Evidence from Russia

• In Event: Authoritarian Endurance and Its Limits: Evidence from Contemporary Russia

Brief Overview

The study tests how revelations about coercive mobilization for pro-regime rallies affect perceptions of an autocrat’s popularity, especially among their supporters, using a survey experiment in Russia before the 2026 parliamentary elections.

Authors

• Stas Gorelik, New Eurasian Strategies Center

• Anastasiia Arbuzova, Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics

• Fabian Burkhardt, Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies

• Jan Matti Dollbaum, University of Fribourg