Career: Stephen White is Professor of International Politics at the University of Glasgow. He has been immersed in the study of the Russian politics since the 1960s when he spent a year at Moscow University as part of his postgraduate studies. Since then he has spent time in Moscow and St Petersburg every year and most recently has been studying how the Russian ruling group used the media, most especially the state-run television networks, to affect the outcome of the 1999 Parliamentary election and the subsequent Presidential election in 2000 when Vladimir Putin was elected. He monitored both elections for the European Institute for the Media (EIM), and also acted as a monitor for the EIM at the recent presidential election in Belarus. He is currently working on several themes, including the implications of EU and NATO enlargement in Russia, Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus and the parties and electoral behaviour in post-communist Russia. Stephen White is co-editor of The Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics (see url below).

Publications include: After Gorbachev 1994, Russia Goes Dry: Alcohol, State and Society 1996, How Russia Votes 1997, Elections and Voters in Post-Communist Russia (co-author) 1998, Values and Political Change in Postcommunist Europe (co-author) 1998, The Soviet Elite from Lenin to Gorbachev: The Central Committee and its Members 1917–1991 (co-author) 2000, Russia's New Politics: The Management of a Postcommunist Society 2000, The Politics of the Postcommunist World (two vols) 2001, Communism and its Collapse 2001, Russia After Communism (co-author) 2002, Developments in Central and East European Politics (3) (co-author) 2003, Developments in Russian Politics (6) (co-author); numerous articles in professional journals

Contact details: Address: Room S418, Department of Politics, Adam Smith Building, 40 Bute Gardens, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, G12 8RT, Scotland; Tel: +44 (0)141 330-5352; Fax: +44 (0)141 330-5071; Email: s.white@socsci.gla.ac.uk ; Website: http://www.lbss.gla.ac.uk/Politics/ ; Website: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/13523279.asp/ .