Pavel Kononenko earned his PhD in Political Science in 2018, with a dissertation titled “The Influence of the Heads of Constituent Territories of the Russian Federation on the Evolution of Regional and Local Power Institutions.” He joined the Smolny College faculty in 2007, teaching courses like “Comparative Politics,” “Resource Curse: Oil, Gas, Diamonds and Trajectories of Political Development,” and “How Does the State Work.” In 2010, he secured a permanent position and later served as the head of the “International Relations, Political Science and Human Rights” program and as an associate professor from 2018 to 2022.
Beyond Smolny, Pavel has taught graduate and postgraduate courses at the Higher School of Economics in St. Petersburg and the European University at St. Petersburg. His research focuses on regional politics and the dynamics of local governance in Russia.