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Focusing on the case of Russia during Putin´s first two presidential terms, this book examines media manipulation strategies in electoral authoritarian regimes. Which instruments and approaches do incumbent elites employ to skew media coverage in favour of their preferred candidate in a presidential election? What effects do these strategies have on news content?

Based on two case studies of the presidential election campaigns in Russia in 2000 and in 2008, this investigation identifies the critical internal mechanisms according to which these regimes work. Looking at the same country, while it transformed from a competitive into a hegemonic authoritarian regime, allows one to make a diachronic comparison of these two regime types based on the Most-Similar Systems Design. The book explicates the subtle differences between competitive and hegemonic regimes, different types of media manipulation strategies, the diverging extent of media instrumentalisation, various interactions among state actors, large business owners, the media, and journalists, the respective effects that all these factors and interactions have on media content, and the peculiar types of bias prevalent in each type of regime.

This deep exploration of post-Soviet politics is based on extensive review of documents, interviews with media professionals, and quantitative as well as qualitative content analyses of news media during two Russian presidential election campaigns.

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"This book is based on a sound understanding of the present state of research and an innovative analytical framework. Most importantly, through sophisticated and extensive empirical research, the author is able to offer a detailed and systematic examination of the Russian case, which is of high value not only for students of Russian politics but also for the broader literature on authoritarian regimes. The author demonstrates convincingly and with empirical details that a shift from competitive to hegemonic authoritarianism is not a simple increase in state repression but means a substantial change in the nature of the regime." -Prof. Dr. Heiko Pleines, Professor of Comparative Politics, University of Bremen

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Dr. Nozima Akhrarkhodjaeva is a researcher at the Research Centre for East European Studies, University of Bremen, Germany. Her research interests lie in the fields of comparative politics, media studies, electoral manipulations, and political economy.

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