Ekaterina Paustyan’s working paper on the distribution of politically motivated intergovernmental transfers in Russia is out at the BOFIT discussion paper series. The paper focuses on the case of the 2018 FIFA World Cup and investigates what factors have accounted for the selection of the World Cup venues. Qualitative Comparative Analysis of 14 cases reveals that well-connected political elites were able to secure the right for their regions to host the championship and, as a result, to extract additional funds from the center. These findings are in line with the argument that the regional governments in Russia play an important role in the distribution of politically sensitive transfers. Taking into account that these transfers have been increasing over the past years, there is no surprise that the regional elites have developed various lobbying strategies and mechanisms for attracting them.