The Elections Atlas project has launched a weekly social-media monitoring programme for the period of the State Duma deputy elections. We will be tracking the online activity of election participants.
Social-media monitoring results are published weekly.
During the week of 14–21 July, 202,719 posts were studied. This week the main focus of the election campaign was the Central Election Commission’s work with documents previously submitted by parties, the certification of lists and the nomination of candidates, as well as individual party news hooks.
Main findings
The number of election-related publications rose markedly after a two-week downward trend. As a reminder: in the first week of the campaign there were almost 176,000 publications, in the second — 231,000, in the third — 162,000, in the fourth — 145,000, while in the fifth week there were practically 203,000.
Despite the quantitative growth, qualitative metrics (engagement) did not improve, and for many parties they even declined because of a highly formalistic approach to news hooks. Only the LDPR and New People stand out with pronounced positive dynamics (thanks to high-profile legislative initiatives), whereas the Communist Party (CPRF), A Just Russia and the small parties are losing audience response. The further development of the campaign will depend on the parties’ ability to offer substantive and resonant hooks, rather than merely increasing the number of publications.
United Russia’s social-media presence is fuelled by active coverage, on official accounts of public authorities and budget-funded institutions, of the activities of governors who have been included in the party’s list of candidates. The boundary between informing citizens about the work of government bodies and party campaigning is effectively being erased.
Number of mentions
The fifth week saw a noticeable rise in publication activity (+40% relative to the previous week). The main increase in the number of publications occurred primarily through coverage of the process of document submission by candidates and regional branches to election commissions at various levels.
A Just Russia and United Russia significantly increased their publication volumes in the fifth week (by 62% and 24% respectively) and stabilised their figures at the level of the first weeks of the campaign.
Thus, A Just Russia continues to strengthen its social-media presence through resonant initiatives by the party leader. For example, last week the top publications included Sergei Mironov’s proposal to index pensions four times a year. Such appeals are logically predictable and understandable: pensioners are the most active electoral group, and each party seeks to win as much loyalty as possible from pensioners and those approaching pension age.
United Russia’s social-media presence is fuelled to a significant degree by the publication activity of state and local government bodies. Regional and municipal administrations, as well as the institutions subordinate to them, regularly publish content in which the party’s activities and those of its representatives are organically woven into an agenda linked to socially significant topics: awarding families, implementing regional programmes, reports on governors’ work, etc.
In many constituent entities of the Russian Federation, regional heads simultaneously serve as secretaries of United Russia’s regional branches and as the party’s candidates in the elections. In such cases the boundary between informing citizens about the work of government bodies and party campaigning is effectively erased. Publications on official administration pages that report, for example, on the presentation of state awards to families, support for the birth rate and large families, or support measures for local culture, often contain a direct indication that the initiative comes from the governor — the secretary of the party branch. This is done, for instance, in Arkhangelsk Oblast, where the governor simultaneously heads a territorial group on United Russia’s list for the State Duma deputy elections.
At the same time, the post itself is placed on the account of a public authority, which gives it the status of official information rather than campaign material, yet simultaneously helps to increase the party’s mentions in the public sphere. This model allows United Russia to build up its presence in the media space without directly using party accounts, through native integration into the agenda of state structures.
New People doubled the number of posts compared to the week before. The CPRF and the small parties show insignificant growth.
The CPRF continues to escalate the fuel situation issue in the public sphere, this time calling for a cap on the maximum price of petrol in connection with high prices at private filling stations.
Dynamics of publication distribution by platform
VKontakte restored its level of dominance after the drop in the fourth week. In the fifth week its share grew from 69.8% to 75.4% and returned to its usual figures. VKontakte’s increase in absolute numbers amounted to 51,800 posts of the total growth in publications.
Telegram continues to grow, but its share declined compared to last week (from 21.5% to 17%) because of the increase in VKontakte’s share.
MAX and YouTube maintain stable shares of the total content volume; their growth is moderate.
Overall, the distribution of activity across platforms has not changed radically over the monitoring period so far.
Views
In the fifth week there are parties that are audience favourites by number of views, including among the small parties.
New People and the Greens are the leaders in reach growth (+46% and +111% respectively). For the Greens this is linked to a sharp increase in posts in connection with the submission of documents to election commissions, including through inclusion in official press releases (+61%); however, post engagement shows an overall decline in interest in them (see the “Engagement” section).
The news hook linked to New People’s initiative on combating domestic violence is still alive, but with each week it acquires new meanings. Deputies Nina Ostanina (CPRF) and Ksenia Goryacheva (New People) have finally found consensus, and the top Telegram publications include “Nina Ostanina supported the domestic violence bill”. Several weeks earlier users could observe a discussion between the deputies of these two factions, from total disagreement and threats of court action to the eventual reconciliation of positions — both party representatives benefited from the sharp debate.
A second example of how the narrative on protecting women’s rights lives on in New People’s communications: the party is creating a partner network of catering establishments where any woman who finds herself in a difficult life situation or momentarily feels danger on the street can go. She can receive help or shelter from a threat by saying a “code word” at the establishment. Catering establishments have already begun joining such a network since 2025, and at the start of the election campaign the party again announced a call for catering establishments in Russia’s regions.
The LDPR and Yabloko also show steady growth in views, while United Russia and the CPRF are losing views slightly (-1.6% and -2.2%) despite an increase in the number of posts.
The growth in Yabloko’s figures is linked to a discussion about the party’s participation in the upcoming election race, since alongside the procedures for submitting documents to the election commission, two candidates in Pskov and Kirov had earlier faced obstacles — they were fined for displaying banned symbols, which leads to the loss of electoral rights.
The remaining small parties are holding their figures at the previous week’s level, without sharp spikes.
Engagement
Despite the growth in the number of publications, a decline in overall engagement (reposts, reactions, comment activity) is noticeable, i.e. audience interest is falling, since many of the news hooks themselves (submission of documents to election commissions, for example) are rather formalistic in nature and do not generate substantial audience interest, yet nonetheless allow the parties to remain on users’ agenda.
Only two parties show growth for the second week in a row — the LDPR and New People. Note that the LDPR is the only major party to show substantial engagement growth (+64%, week 4 — 221,879, week 5 — 653,100) alongside growth in posts and views.
The top post mentioning the party by engagement is the LDPR’s initiative to pay working pensioners a supplement of 2,000 roubles for each year of service. Also in the top 10 by engagement is the party’s proposal to abolish the recycling levy until 2030. It is worth noting that the LDPR’s youth wing has stepped up its activity; confirmation of this includes the post by the “LDPR Youth” that provoked a stormy reaction, about young people’s ideas of modern housing, where a camp bed in a field is presented as the optimal option. The post is linked to the party’s initiative to create a subsidised “People’s Mortgage” programme with a rate of 3%. The clip went viral because Gen Z users picked up the trend and began renting storage containers instead of housing.
New People’s figures are slightly more modest, but they also grew in engagement from 198,656 to 399,132 reactions compared to last week. Engagement was influenced by the “reconciliation” of deputies Ostanina (CPRF) and Goryacheva (New People) on the domestic violence issue.
United Russia is holding its figure at last week’s level (+1.7%) despite growth in posts. The CPRF and A Just Russia are losing engagement (the drop for each party was around 30%) despite growth in the number of posts.
The small parties (Rodina, Communists of Russia, the Greens) show a sharp drop in engagement (from -51% to -71%), despite growth in the number of publications.