In today’s episode, Kevin spoke to Ben Noble, a lecturer in Russian politics at University College London in the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, who researches legislatures in non-democracies.In this interview, Kevin asked Ben what he means when he says Russian members of parliament “can serve as pawns in proxy skirmishes between non-legislative actors.” Ben also talked about how he gets all his information about bureaucratic infighting at the Duma, and what actors and agencies tend to win these clashes of politics by other means. Finally, he discussed the likely consequences of the partial media boycott on the State Duma announced after the Slutsky ruling last Wednesday. I refer to two texts by Ben in this podcast. Read his Medium blog post here: https://tinyurl.com/yaby694eAnd read his book chapter with Ekaterina Schulmann here:https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XNXG12Z/ref=oh_aui_d_detailpage_o00_?ie=UTF8&psc=1Follow Ben Noble on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Ben_H_NobleSupport this podcast on Patreon here: www.patreon.com/kevinrothrockSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/kevinrothrock)