Proceeding from a number of electoral behaviour theories tested in Western practice, the author investigates the reasons that influence Russian citizens’ decisions as to their participation in the voting (turning to the materials of elections of the executive power heads in the country’s regions in 1995 to 2000). The bulk of her work the author devotes to hypotheses she brings forward on the basis of the above mentioned theories and with Russian specific conditions taken into account, as well as to the operationalization of key notions and to the characterization of the empirical data. The hypotheses thus substantiated are yet to be tested by statistical analysis of election results.