Protest behavior in the Russian federal elections of 2016: special features of the Lipetsk case

In this article, the author analyzes the phenomenon of protest behavior of voters in the Russian Federal Elections of 2016 to the Russian State Duma and regional parliaments. The author analyzes the situation in the Lipetsk region, where a large number of invalid ballots were recorded. The author tries to find out by what reasons voters can be guided in choosing Lipetsk voter protest strategies, and how their choice can talk about the legitimacy of the regional authorities. Is the inclination to protest vote an evidence of the problems of infrastructure and differences in cultural context, or all, in fact, results from the administrative pressure.