Staffan I. Lindberg is Director of the V-Dem Institute at University of Gothenburg; Principal Investigator of Varieties of Democracy; Wallenberg Academy Fellow, author of Democracy and Elections in Africa (JHUP 2006), co-author of Varieties of Democracy (CUP 2020), Why Democracies Develop and Decline (CUP 2022) and over 60 academic articles. Lindberg has extensive experience as consultant and advisor to international organizations.

Henry Hale is Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University and Co-Director of the Program on New Approaches to Research and Security in Eurasia (PONARS Eurasia). He has spent extensive time conducting field research in post-Soviet Eurasia and is currently working on identity politics and political system change, with a special focus now on public opinion dynamics in Russia and Ukraine. His work has won two prizes from the American Political Science Association and he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship for his research in Russia in 2007-2008.