The “Election Atlas” project has launched a weekly monitoring programme of federal television channels during the State Duma deputy election period. We will track how balanced the coverage of election participants’ activities is on state-controlled federal television channels.
Television remains one of the main sources of information for many Russians. At the same time, society entrusts the media with a special role — they are responsible for creating conditions for citizens to conduct public political discussion. Both the Russian Constitution and many international covenants require the media to take ethical and balanced positions and to cover the election process in a fair, balanced and impartial manner. Media representatives must not engage in campaigning.
The results of the media monitoring are published weekly.
Key findings for the fifth week of the campaign
In the fifth week of the election campaign, the largest political parties held important events: the CPRF held an all-Russian open party-political meeting, and the LDPR presented its programme. However, these events, although covered in the federal television broadcast, received very modest attention. The total duration of election-related reports across all six television channels fell to a negligible 30 minutes. For comparison, during the 2021 elections, in practically the same dates (12–18 July), television channels devoted more than 90 minutes to the elections, and more than 40 minutes to the parties themselves.
The main actor, in the television channels’ view, was once again not the parties but the Central Election Commission, whose routine was often covered in more detail than the pre-election events of the election participants.
As before, the activities of United Russia, the CPRF and the LDPR were covered in the greatest detail. New People and A Just Russia combined reports on the registration process with individual reports on party activities, but the attention paid to them was significantly less than that paid to the three largest parliamentary parties. The other parties participating in the pre-election race were mentioned only in connection with the work of the CEC and its decisions.
Over more than a month of the campaign, not a single party has yet gone into negative territory in our tone rating (calculated as the difference between positive and negative mentions). The campaign is being covered in a dull, vacuous, but neutral manner.
Number and content of news reports
This week, attention to the elections in the federal television broadcast continued to decline. The total duration of election-related reports across all six television channels fell from 41 minutes last week to a negligible 30 minutes. For comparison, during the 2021 elections, in practically the same dates (12–18 July), television channels devoted more than 90 minutes to the elections, and more than 40 minutes to the parties themselves.
On Channel One, the share of news programmes that mentioned the election topic fell by more than half, from 29% to 13%. On NTV, this indicator fell threefold; on the TVC channel, by almost a third. Only the Russia 1 channel increased its attention to the pre-election agenda, devoting more reports to it than a week earlier. For comparison, in 2021, in the same July dates, Channel One and Russia 1 devoted time to covering the elections in roughly 40% of news programmes.
Distribution of airtime between parties
The total airtime allocated to parties in election-related news reports also decreased: from 37 minutes last week to 27 minutes this week.
As a result, only three parties (United Russia, the CPRF and A Just Russia) had an average report duration with their mention that barely exceeded half a minute. The remaining parties did not even reach this more than modest indicator (it reflects the level of substance in such reports).
The number of party mentions also decreased for almost all participants in the pre-election campaign. It is noteworthy that United Russia was once again not the most “covered” party (as in the first and third weeks), while attention to the CPRF remains consistently high compared to other parties.
On the other hand, United Russia, together with the SRs, received the most diverse audience of all the parties — reports mentioning them appeared on four of the six television channels. The CPRF, New People, the LDPR, Rodina and Communists of Russia were mentioned on three television channels. Channel Five and OTR deigned to mention only United Russia and A Just Russia, respectively.
Tone of mentions
In the fifth week of the pre-election campaign, the tone in which the parties’ work was covered remained predominantly neutral. The reports were short and most often contained summaries of the CEC’s work.
It is worth noting that over more than a month of the campaign, not a single party has yet gone into negative territory in our tone rating (calculated as the difference between positive and negative mentions). The campaign is being covered in a dull, vacuous, but neutral manner.
News pegs of the week by party
United Russia
The main news pegs were the registration of the party’s federal list of candidates and events within the framework of the pre-election campaign in Stavropol Krai.
On the Russia 1 channel, the work of the conference of the party’s Stavropol regional branch was covered in detail, where the nomination of candidates to the State Duma, the implementation of party projects and support for participants in the special military operation were discussed. Several reports covered Vladimir Yakushev’s visit to a new residential neighbourhood built as part of a party programme, and also highlighted residents’ participation in selecting improvement and development projects.
On NTV and Channel Five, fragments of a discussion by the Expert Institute for Social Research were shown, in which the coordinator of the party’s expert council, Konstantin Kostin, emphasised United Russia’s twenty years of experience in federal and regional elections and noted that this very experience is taken into account when shaping the party’s pre-election strategy.
CPRF
The main news peg was the registration of the party’s federal list of candidates by the Central Election Commission.
The Russia 1 channel devoted relatively significant attention to the CPRF’s all-Russian open party-political meeting, held in a videoconference format. The discussion focused on election preparations, the work of regional branches and the mobilisation of party activists.
Gennady Zyuganov called on activists to work more actively with voters, devoted considerable attention to the international agenda and, in his speeches, criticised Western countries, linking the upcoming elections to the current foreign policy situation. His address to the CEC, calling for a full-fledged public discussion of key issues in the pre-election campaign, was quoted separately: “I appeal once again, including to the CEC, because it is very important not just to formally register, but to ensure a full-fledged dialogue, a discussion of problems, in the course of which every voter will have the opportunity to make a meaningful, considered choice.”
LDPR
The main news pegs were the presentation of the party’s pre-election programme and a series of public events with the participation of Leonid Slutsky. On Channel One, it was reported that the programme was presented, including more than 80 initiatives to support pensioners. Leonid Slutsky stressed that the pre-election programme should consist not of promises, but of concrete legislative initiatives with designated deadlines for their adoption, the amount of funding and personal responsibility for implementation.
On the Russia 1 channel, coverage was given to Leonid Slutsky’s meeting with the party’s candidates, dedicated to issues of supporting women, where he announced the development of the LDPR’s women’s movement. Also covered was an extended meeting of the Duma faction, at which support for pensioners was named one of the key directions of the pre-election programme. In addition, the channel covered Slutsky’s trip to Yekaterinburg, where he took part in the “Tsar’s Days” events, proposed establishing a Day of Remembrance for Victims Who Suffered for the Orthodox Faith, and also visited a metallurgical enterprise and proposed introducing export duties on scrap metal to support domestic industry. Individual reports on the faction meeting and the visit to the enterprise were repeated on air. On Channel Five, a brief comment by an LDPR representative was aired about the main figures on the federal party list.
A Just Russia
The main news peg was the submission of documents for registration to the Central Election Commission. Additionally, the Russia 1 channel covered Sergei Mironov’s working trip to Volgograd Oblast, where he visited the “Yuny Yastreb” centre for military-patriotic training. In the report, Mironov stressed the importance of patriotic education.
New People
On the Russia 1 channel, coverage was given to the opening in Moscow of the first headquarters of the “Novye” youth movement. The report covered a video link-up with regional teams that presented social projects, and Alexei Nechayev noted that the core of the movement already numbers around three thousand people involved in volunteer activities and the implementation of public initiatives. Channel One and TVC also reported on the party’s submission of documents for registration of the federal list of candidates.
Yabloko, Rodina, Communists of Russia, the Greens, the Party of Direct Democracy and the Party of Pensioners
Coverage of these parties in the federal television broadcast was exclusively linked to the completion of the next stages of registration with the CEC. The greatest attention was paid to the commission’s decisions on certifying candidate lists, registering authorised representatives and eliminating technical remarks in documents.
All reports about the Yabloko party were linked to the work of the Central Election Commission. TVC reported on the registration of the party’s financial representatives after the elimination of previously identified deficiencies in the documents.
Communists of Russia and the Rodina party were mentioned in connection with the certification of candidate lists and the opening of special electoral accounts.
Regarding the Greens party, it was reported that the CEC approved the list of candidates and authorised the opening of a special account for forming the electoral fund.
With regard to the Party of Direct Democracy, it was noted that the Central Election Commission identified deficiencies in the documents and provided time for their elimination.
The Party of Pensioners appeared during the week only in general reports on the progress of registration of election campaign participants, without separate reports on the party’s activities.
Methodology
Six federal television channels that are part of the first multiplex and enjoy the greatest popularity among viewers were selected for the media monitoring — Channel One, Russia 1, NTV, TV Centre, Channel Five, OTR.
On each of the six television channels, news programmes available in video archives were analysed. During the fifth week of the pre-election campaign, from 13 to 19 July 2026, 208 news programmes were studied (Channel One — 37 programmes, Russia 1 — 36 programmes, NTV — 33 programmes, TVC — 27 programmes, OTR — 57 programmes, Channel Five — 18 programmes).
We analysed each news programme for the presence of reports about political parties. If there were reports about parties, we were interested in the following indicators:
the number of party mentions;
the time allocated to the party;
the tone of the information (positive, neutral, negative);
the presence of direct speech by party representatives;
the presence in the report of voters’ opinions about the parties;
characteristics of the parties voiced by the presenter or voice-over.