In the late '00-s, Ministry of Education of Russia had set some incentives to universities, including the number of papers published in top-rated international journals. The more liberal, West-oriented folks were much more capable of doing this, hence they concentrated in many top-tier universities. Sometimes this led to political fights with the conservative top management. The latter got huge salaries from the ministry and was informally demanded to keep loyalty and suppress dissent. (Figures that I heard from a big regional uni: rector's salary $12K/mo, teacher's around $700/mo, part-time teacher doing a course twice a week ~$100/mo.) So rectors would bring as many capable people as possible, no matter their political position, and then softly tried to stop them from making political stances/scandals.