Managed Elections and Unmanageable Interest
Ksenia Smolyakova on a growing public appetite for debate about what is happening in Russia
Immediately after the Supreme Court canceled Yabloko’s State Duma candidate list, it became clear that the party’s initial registration and the surge of support it received had already disrupted the Kremlin’s baseline scenario for these elections. The social-media monitoring project, Atlas of Elections, observed a significant increase in posts mentioning Yabloko, which attracted 4.5 times more reactions than before the list was registered.
This surge propelled Yabloko into fourth place, surpassing A Just Russia and narrowing the gap with the CPRF and New People.
The monitoring data is drawn from four state-controlled platforms: VKontakte, MAX messenger, Telegram, and YouTube. These platforms are managed by Sergei Kiriyenko, the son of the first deputy head of the presidential administration. Other popular platforms like Instagram, X, and TikTok were not included due to technical reasons.
This tilt towards a "statist" view of politics gives the findings added analytical weight, as the demand for open political discussion and active participation is visible even in this skewed digital space. The cancellation of Yabloko’s registration and the subsequent cancellation event became defining moments of the campaign.
New data revealed that after the cancellation, Yabloko rose to first place in Russian social media, with a massive surge in engagement. Television, the primary source of news for Russians, constructed a distorted reality, barely mentioning Yabloko on the six federal channels. The party received minimal airtime during the cancellation week, while all parties still in the race received free airtime. Had Yabloko remained on the ballot, it could have bought paid advertising and potentially gained more media exposure.
Written by urgent.news from Riddle Russia - Politics's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
