Ella Paneyakh is a sociologist whose research background includes studies of the Russian bureaucracy and criminal justice system, modernisation, post-Soviet transformation and business.  Previously she was a professor in the Department of Political Science and Sociology at the European University in St. Petersburg. Known for combining academic studies with work in civic education, she is also a prominent political columnist who won the 2020 Libmissia Award for her work as a columnist for Vedomosti newspaper where she published for nearly 20 years.

Her major academic contributions include the books Trajectory of a Criminal Case: Institutional Analysis (2018) and Rules of the Game for Russian Entrepreneurs (2008), as well as numerous papers such as The Courts, Law Enforcement, and Politics (2018), The Practical Logic of Judicial Decision Making (2016), and Faking Performance Together: Systems of Performance Evaluation in Russian Enforcement Agencies (2014), exploring judicial processes, regulatory systems, and institutional dynamics in Russia.