Two doctoral researchers from the working group of Michael Rochlitz – Olga Masyutina and Michael Richter – took part in the annual conference of the European Consortium for Political Research. The conference was held online on August 30 - September 3, 2021. Olga participated in the ‘Policy Analysis at the Subnational Level: Old and New Approaches’ panel with her paper “Environmental Politics in Authoritarian Regimes: Waste Management Reform in the Russian Regions” (co-authored with Ekaterina Paustyan). Michael presented his paper “Covid - Catalyst or Inhibitor of Ukraine's "Dream of Europe"?” at the panel ’Democratisation in times of COVID-19: Uncertain Paths of Political Change’.