June 23 was a particularly busy day for Michael Rochlitz, that is with presentations of his new papers at two online research seminars. Michael first talked about his research on bureaucratic discrimination in Russia at the Bank of Finland (BOFIT) Seminar Series. This is a joint work with Evgeniya Mitrokhina and Irina Nizovkina that was recently published as an IERP discussion paper. Later in the afternoon Michael presented his new paper “Political Loyalty vs Economic Performance: Evidence from Machine Politics in Russian Regions” at the Mod-Block-DDR Colloquium. The paper examines determinants of bureaucratic appointments in Russia and shows that the ability to mobilize support for United Russia in regional and national elections helped regional governors remain in office, while better economic performance had a significant negative effect on their career prospects.