On February 16, the sudden passing of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in a jail station in Russia’s Arctic Circle marked a significant time in the country’s public discussion. The death of Napoleon caused a significant rise in online discussions of someone other than Vladimir Putin.
Navalny’s mentions on social media increased 14 fold, marking a unique outlier of Vladimir Putin, and it was an indication of the public’s surprise and issue his death had caused.
I was curious to know how dominant Putin was in the broadcast advertising and how much of his appearance on Russian cultural advertising. I used a site called BrandAnalytics to gather everyday information on the mentions of notable Russian public figures from February 15 to February 27.
The social multimedia environment has been dominated by UAE-based Telegram as well as regional Russian websites like VKontakte and Odnoklassniki since the Kremlin banned Meta from operating in Russia at the end of 2022. Telegram‘s wave as the main online software follows the movement of people from programs such as Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, which are restricted in Russia.
The figure below, which was created from that information, illustrifies the absolute supremacy of Vladimir Putin in the social media environment. State-controlled advertising, several government authorities who often post information featuring him, and the assistance of machines designed to increase mentions of his image keep this dominance up.
This makes sure that he is frequently mentioned in Russian public discourse, which shows how much he has a significant impact on the press environment.
Top 15 individuals are mentioned regular on Russian cultural media:
However, Alexey Navalny may pose a threat to focus on Soviet social media platforms if there was such a thing. If you look at the desk below, which examines social press mentions from April 2021, when Navalny was recuperated from Novichok poison, was arrested at the airports, tried, and imprisoned, you can see that there was a high level of interest.
As individuals followed the trial and arrest’s case, that curiosity persisted for a while. You’d hope that the leader also dominated social media, but that’s what you’d expect. But, unusually, Putin scored less than twice the number of mentions that Navalny achieved. Given the factors that artificially inflate Putin’s numbers ( government officials, bots, etc ) it shows that Navalny remained a strong presence in people’s minds.
Top five persons mentioned on Russian cultural advertising, April 2021 and February 2024:
If you look deeper, you can find four main groups of people who consistently rank among Russia’s best 50. To make life easier, I’ve focused on the top 15 folks being mentioned on social media.
The best images for discussion on Russian social media platforms are world leaders, dominated by Putin, but Joe Biden, Emmanuel Macron, and Donald Trump are also well-known for their contributions.
Older Russian officials like former president Dmitry Medvedev, who is now Russia’s national surveillance council’s deputy head, and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu are among those who are also well-known for the conversation in the construction of the daily news.
Other well-known historical figures for discussion include Alexander Pushkin, a Russian poet and playwright, and Josef Stalin, one of the Soviet leaders and Vladimir Lenin.
The following tier of personalities includes contemporary cultural figures like the Bulgarian-born Russian pop singer Philipp Kirkorov and singer-songwriter Yaroslav Yuryevich Dronov, both of whom are known for their support of Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Politics to the fore
While the primary group, led by Putin himself, features regular spikes for the likes of Biden, Trump and Macron, newsworthy Ukrainians including the president, Volodymyr Zelensky and the mayor of Kiev, former boxer Vitali Klitschko, also feature regularly.
Zelensky and Biden are frequently framed by users to support a narrative of external threats in the context of the Ukrainian war. Putin’s regime is also helped by this, which helps to establish his legitimacy as a protector of Russians from the threats posed by these figures.
Biden’s meeting with Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, on February 22 – days after her husband’s death – also supported this notion in that many people posting saw this as proof that the West was ganging up with the regime’s enemies.
Only Medvedev and Shoigu among the Russian politicians in the top 15 mentions are likely to get a look in. Their mentions tend to rise when they make mention of something that is noteworthy, such as Medvedev’s speech from February 22 when he predicted that Russia would occupy large areas of Ukraine and possibly even Kiev. When Shoigu was credited with taking control of the important Ukrainian town of Avdiivka, his name suddenly became sour.
But even so, these figures achieve at most 8, 000 to 9, 000 mentions – 23 times fewer than the sorts of numbers achieved by Putin. In the eyes of the Russian people, it highlights the lack of discernible political alternatives to Putin’s leadership or even an accepted succession.
An eye on history
Lenin, Stalin, Adolf Hitler, and other notable figures from Russian history are all regular visitors, which suggests Russia’s complex relationship with its past. Current political discourse is shaped by sentiments of nostalgia, national pride, and critical reflection.
One of Putin’s favorite themes, which is that Nazism once more threatens the peace-loving people of Russia, especially from Ukraine, whose leadership the Russian president regularly denounces as a “gang of Nazis,” is reflected in the regular reminders of Hitler and the Nazis.
Daily mentions of the top 13 people on Russian social media, excluding Navalny and Putin:
It is, of course, very difficult to separate regular social media discussion from Kremlin- sponsored content. Even so, if social media mentions are any indication of Russian political sentiment, it’s not surprising that Putin has merely manipulated his way to a fifth term in office.
Olga Logunova is Research Associate, King’s Russia Institute, King’s College London
This article was republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.