Håvard Bækken (b. 1983), obtained a PhD in Russian Area Studies from the University of Oslo (UiO) in 2014. Bækken has been working as a research fellow at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI) and guest researcher at the Norwegian University Centre in St. Petersburg and the EU–Russia Centre in Brussels. He has taught Russian politics and history at the Institute of Literature, Area-Studies, and European Languages (ILOS) at UiO, and Russian language at the Nansen Academy. Håvard Bækken has earlier publications on issues of law, power, and quasi-legal practices in Russia, as well as on resurgent state patriotism and ‘patriotic education’ in the same country.

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• Part I: Law and Power in Russian PoliticsChapter 1. Law and power in authoritarian regimes. Research and perspectivesChapter 2. The Russian legal traditionChapter 3. The creation of a new quasi-legal orderChapter 4. The politico-legal duality of Putinism, Part II: Selective Law Enforcement in Theory and PracticeChapter 5. Selective law enforcement as a mechanism enforcing informal rulesChapter 6. Three issue areas of controversyChapter 7. A legal minefield: The role of laws in selective law enforcementChapter 8. Perceptions about political interferenceChapter 9. The impact of quasi-legal repressionConlcluding Remarks.