The Election Atlas project has launched a weekly monitoring programme covering federal television channels during the State Duma election campaign. We will examine whether participants in the election receive equitable coverage on state-controlled federal television.
Television remains one of the principal sources of information for many Russians. At the same time, society assigns the media a particular responsibility: they are expected to create the conditions in which citizens can engage in public political debate. Both the Russian Constitution and a number of international instruments require media outlets to adopt ethical and balanced positions and to cover elections fairly, impartially and without bias. Media representatives must not engage in campaigning.
Media monitoring reports are published weekly.
During the seventh week of the campaign, from 27 July to 2 August, the candidate lists of the six remaining parties were registered: Communists of Russia on 28 July, the Party of Pensioners on 28 July, Yabloko on 29 July, Rodina on 29 July, the Party of Direct Democracy on 30 July and the Greens on 30 July. The registration of party lists for the State Duma election has therefore been completed.
Key findings from the seventh week of the campaign
As in previous weeks, a substantial disparity remains between the coverage afforded to parliamentary and non-parliamentary parties. Parliamentary parties regularly became the subjects of standalone reports and were given opportunities to present their achievements, principal policy priorities and candidates.
Non-parliamentary parties appeared in the news primarily in connection with Central Election Commission decisions registering their federal candidate lists. Their candidates and election platforms were not presented separately.
This disparity is particularly evident in coverage of party-list registration. During the week in which its candidate list was registered, United Russia received 90 times more airtime than Communists of Russia received when the latter had an equivalent news opportunity.
The principal campaign event of the week was the completion of the registration of federal candidate lists. Federal television coverage focused largely on the procedural aspects of the campaign: the campaign timetable, the organisation of remote electronic voting, the use of new technologies to deliver election documents, and preparations for public election observation.
At the same time, the conclusion of the current State Duma’s term and the president’s meetings with the leaders of the parliamentary parties gave television channels additional opportunities to highlight the parties’ achievements and policy positions.
The television channels made a coordinated effort to create the impression that all political forces were united in support of the “special military operation” and, more broadly, the country’s foreign-policy course.
The concluding speeches delivered by the leaders of the parliamentary parties at the end of the State Duma’s term provided the main occasion for this narrative. Most of the speeches addressed state sovereignty, social unity, support for participants in the “special military operation”, continuity between successive parliamentary convocations, and the consolidation of political forces.
Speakers repeatedly emphasised the need to overcome disagreements between the parliamentary parties and highlighted the parties’ support for both the president and the “special military operation”.
The war was not mentioned at all in the speech delivered by the leader of New People. Reports on the party’s activities instead focused on entrepreneurship, technology and youth policy.
Meanwhile, Yabloko’s platform, the only party programme openly calling for an end to the war, has not been mentioned once throughout the campaign.
Number and content of news reports
The proportion of news bulletins containing election-related reports changed unevenly across the different channels.
The sharpest decline occurred on Channel One, the most popular channel among Russian television audiences. Its figure fell more than tenfold, from 29% the previous week to 2.6%. NTV and TV Centre also recorded substantial declines.
OTR and Channel Five, which had devoted no airtime to the election during the previous week, moved in the opposite direction and allocated a noticeable share of their news coverage to the campaign. On Channel Five, election-related content accounted for almost 43% of news airtime.
The total duration of election-related reporting also varied considerably between channels. The most pronounced change again occurred on Channel One, where the volume of coverage fell eighteenfold, to just one minute of airtime.
Overall, the channels devoted slightly more time to the election campaign than they had the previous week: 61 minutes, compared with 56.
Distribution of airtime between parties
With the exception of United Russia, every party received more on-air mentions than it had the previous week.
The total airtime allocated to United Russia nevertheless declined considerably, from 22 minutes to 15. The largest increase was recorded for A Just Russia, whose number of mentions almost doubled.
As a result, all parliamentary parties received roughly comparable numbers of mentions, while the remaining parties continued to operate in an entirely different tier of coverage.
Yabloko led among the smaller parties, receiving seven mentions during the week. Similar changes were observed for other non-parliamentary parties, which returned to the news agenda after having been absent during the previous reporting period.
The distribution of airtime followed a similar pattern. The lowest figure among the parliamentary parties was recorded for A Just Russia, at 7.4 minutes during the week. United Russia received the most, at more than 15 minutes.
Among the smaller parties, whose lists were registered during the week under review, Yabloko again achieved the highest figure, although it received less than three minutes.
All non-parliamentary parties combined received less than seven minutes of airtime. This was less than the amount allocated to each individual parliamentary party.
The mentions themselves were also extremely brief: the average report concerning any individual party lasted no more than 40 seconds.
The parties did, however, appear across a range of channels. Communists of Russia was the only party mentioned on just two channels, neither of which is among the most popular with television audiences: TV Centre and OTR.
Both channels nevertheless provided at least brief coverage of every political party participating in the election.
Channel One mentioned only LDPR. Channel Five covered only New People. NTV reported on United Russia, the CPRF, LDPR, Rodina and Yabloko. Russia 1 mentioned every party except, for reasons that remain unclear, Communists of Russia.
Since the registration of party candidate lists was completed during the seventh week of the campaign, it is now possible to assess how television channels covered this stage of the process for different parties.
The situation was better than it had been during the parties’ election congresses. At that stage, television channels entirely overlooked these important events when they were held by the smaller parties, while United Russia’s congress received more attention than the equivalent events of all the other parties combined.
United Russia again enjoyed an obvious advantage in coverage of party-list registration, although the disparity was less extreme. The party received approximately one-third of the total airtime, while every party received at least a brief mention.
Nevertheless, despite the principle of equal rights for candidates and parties established in federal law, the registration of the leading party received 90 times more airtime than the equivalent event involving the party that ranked last by this measure.
Tone of coverage
As in previous weeks, the tone of coverage was neutral or predominantly neutral for every party. No negative mentions were recorded.
The tone rating, calculated as the difference between the number of positive and negative mentions, has therefore remained within the positive or neutral range for every party throughout the campaign.
This represents a clear departure from the 2021 election campaign.
Principal news stories of the week
United Russia
The principal news stories involving United Russia concerned the parliamentary faction’s assessment of its work, the party leadership’s participation in the Territory of Meanings forum, and party initiatives supporting participants in the “special military operation”.
Coverage also placed particular emphasis on the party’s work with young people, describing it as one of United Russia’s main priorities.
Television channels reported on patriotic events involving party representatives. Russia 1, TV Centre and Channel One covered the Territory of Meanings forum, where Dmitry Medvedev delivered a speech on the need to consolidate political forces and secure victory in the “special military operation”.
OTR and TV Centre devoted considerable attention to speeches by the head of United Russia’s State Duma faction, Vladimir Vasilyev. He reviewed the work of the eighth State Duma and discussed welfare legislation, support for families with children and the country’s future development.
CPRF
The CPRF’s principal news stories also concerned the parliamentary faction’s assessment of its work, the presentation of its election programme, and the registration of its federal candidate list.
Russia 1, TV Centre and OTR broadcast excerpts from a speech by Gennady Zyuganov reviewing the work of the eighth State Duma. The CPRF leader discussed sovereignty, international affairs, the need for social consolidation and support for the “special military operation”.
The presentation of the CPRF’s election programme also received separate attention. Reports covered the party’s record, its support for participants in the “special military operation”, its dispatch of humanitarian convoys, and health and recuperation programmes for children from Donbas.
The party’s stated programme priorities included combating rising prices and developing science, education, modern technology and artificial intelligence.
LDPR
LDPR’s principal news stories during the week concerned the parliamentary faction’s assessment of its work, the presentation of the results of the party’s activities over the preceding five years, and Leonid Slutsky’s participation in public and political events.
Channel One and Russia 1 broadcast reports on LDPR’s work in the State Duma. These reports emphasised that the party responds to appeals from citizens and works on support for pensioners, families with children, participants in the “special military operation” and their relatives. Attention was also given to migration policy.
Separate reports covered Leonid Slutsky’s participation in the Territory of Meanings forum, where he discussed the role of young people.
Television channels also reported on Slutsky’s working visit to Novosibirsk Region, during which he discussed the development of technology parks in Russia.
TV Centre quoted Slutsky’s statements on the number of appeals received by the party and covered his proposal that Russia should host a world esports championship.
A Just Russia
The principal news stories involving A Just Russia concerned the party’s participation in the conclusion of the parliamentary session, the registration of its federal candidate list, and public appearances by party chairman Sergei Mironov.
Federal television broadcast excerpts from Mironov’s speeches at the final State Duma session and at the Territory of Meanings forum. The party leader discussed social cohesion, the party’s electoral prospects, international affairs and the need to adopt a hard line towards Russia’s opponents.
A Russia 1 report covered the registration of the party’s candidate list, which included 16 participants in the “special military operation”. The report noted that A Just Russia was contesting the election with a programme entitled the Manifesto of Justice.
OTR and TV Centre also covered Sergei Mironov’s meeting with the Russian president and the registration of the party’s authorised financial representatives.
New People
The principal news stories involving New People concerned the parliamentary faction’s assessment of its work and party representatives’ participation in the Territory of Meanings forum.
Reports broadcast by Russia 1, TV Centre, Channel Five and OTR focused on the head of the party’s parliamentary faction, Alexei Nechayev.
In his speeches, Nechayev discussed support for small businesses and entrepreneurship, the development of human capital, youth policy, new technologies and artificial intelligence.
TV Centre emphasised that New People had formed its own State Duma faction for the first time. Party representatives also spoke about the need to develop modern technologies and introduce new approaches to public administration.
Yabloko, Rodina, Communists of Russia, the Greens, the Party of Direct Democracy and the Party of Pensioners
Coverage of the non-parliamentary parties remained largely confined to reports on the progress of the election campaign and decisions taken by the Central Election Commission.
Rodina, the Greens, Yabloko, the Party of Direct Democracy and the Party of Pensioners were mentioned together in general reports on the registration of election participants.
One separate TV Centre report concerned Yabloko. The Central Election Commission considered the party’s complaint against the refusal to register its candidate list for the St Petersburg Legislative Assembly.
The commission upheld the regional election commission’s decision, citing errors in the submitted documents.
Beyond this report, coverage of Yabloko’s participation in the election was effectively indistinguishable from that afforded to the other non-parliamentary parties. In particular, there was no mention of the party’s “peace platform”, which distinguishes it from every other party contesting the election.
Reports on the work of the Central Election Commission
As noted above, the week’s principal news event was the registration of the federal candidate lists for the State Duma election.
Television channels covered the completion of this stage of the campaign and the transition to the official campaigning period, which begins on 22 August, in considerable detail.
Reports on party registration focused less on the political organisations themselves than on the administrative and procedural aspects of the election.
Television channels described the work of the Central Election Commission, voting procedures and preparations for the election infrastructure.
An NTV report, for example, stated that remote electronic voting would be available in 33 regions containing more than 48 million registered voters.
Particular attention was also given to the use of new technologies. The Central Election Commission presented a pilot project involving uncrewed boats that would deliver ballot papers, informational materials and election documents to remote and inaccessible areas.
Television channels also covered preparations for public election observation. Reports described an agreement between the Civic Chamber and 52 non-profit organisations, as well as preparations to train more than 100,000 observers.
Separate reports addressed preparations for voting abroad. Polling stations will operate at diplomatic missions in more than ten countries.
Methodology
Six federal television channels were selected for the media monitoring programme. All belong to Russia’s first digital multiplex and are among the most popular channels with television audiences: Channel One, Russia 1, NTV, TV Centre, Channel Five and OTR.
For each of the six channels, we analysed the news bulletins available in its video archive.
During the seventh week of the election campaign, from 27 July to 2 August 2026, a total of 220 news bulletins were examined:
Channel One: 38 bulletins;
Russia 1: 32 bulletins;
NTV: 37 bulletins;
TV Centre: 28 bulletins;
OTR: 61 bulletins;
Channel Five: 24 bulletins.
We examined each news bulletin to determine whether it contained reports concerning political parties.
Where such reports were present, we recorded the following indicators:
the number of mentions received by each party;
the amount of airtime allocated to each party;
the tone of the coverage: positive, neutral or negative;
whether party representatives were shown speaking directly;
whether the report included voters’ opinions of the parties;
descriptions or characterisations of the parties supplied by presenters or voice-over narration.