Nikolai Petrov is a political expert with a background in Russian domestic politics, whose 40-year career has spanned the worlds of academic research, politics, and business. Before moving to NEST Centre, he was a visiting researcher at Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP) in Berlin, where he focused on Russian domestic politics, its impact on foreign policy, and the workings of Russia's political regime. He is also a consulting fellow with the Russia and Eurasia Programme at Chatham House, London. He leads NEST Centre’s work on Russian domestic politics, including the study of elites and decision-making processes.
From 2019 to 2022, he was a senior research fellow with the Russia and Eurasia Programme at Chatham House. Between 2013 and 2021, he served as a professor and Head of the Laboratory for Regional Development Assessment Methods at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow. Previously, he was a scholar-in-residence at the Carnegie Moscow Center, where he co-directed the Society and Regions project.
From 1990 to 1995, he served as an advisor to the Russian parliament, government, and presidential administration.
He is a member of the Program on New Approaches to Research and Security in Eurasia (PONARS Eurasia) and serves on the editorial boards of several journals, including the Journal of Power Institutions in Post-Soviet Societies, Russian Politics, and Russian Politics & Law.
He is the author and editor of numerous publications dealing with the analysis of Russia’s political regime, post-Soviet transformation, the socioeconomic and political development of Russia’s regions, democratisation, federalism, and elections, among other topics.
His publications include the three-volume 1997 Political Almanac of Russia and its annual supplements, as well as The Dynamics of Russian Politics: Putin’s Reform of Federal-Regional Relations (2004, 2005), Irregular Triangle: Interrelations between Authorities, Business, and Society in Russian Regions (2010), Russia in 2020: Scenarios for the Future (2011), Russia 2025: Scenarios for the Russian Future (2013), and The State of Russia: What Comes Next (co-edited with Maria Lipman, 2015).
