Volodymyr Zelenskyy is firmly in second place in terms of mentions in Russian news. Last week was no exception. As well as the fact that in terms of the frequency (more than a million) of mentions, Vladimir Putin remains an extremum in the Russian media space.
A distinctive feature of the past seven days was the entry into the top 5 of Viktor But’s last name. Despite the fact that the informational reason – the exchange of Booth and the release from the American prison – appeared only in the second half of the week. The sudden surge of mentions of Viktor Bout can be explained not only by the numerous attempts of the Russian side to release him for almost 15 years. The official media constantly emphasized that his release is a testament to the power of the Russian Federation, and the exchange for a basketball player was not equivalent.
The importance of Viktor Bout’s dismissal for Russian mass media is also confirmed by the fact that he was mentioned almost twice as often as the permanent media personalities of the Russian Federation in the top-5 rating – such as Yevgeny Prigozhin and Ramzan Kadyrov.
Bout pushed even Dmitri Medvedev to the fourth place in terms of frequency of presence in the news, who, for his part, did everything for his citation: he published another sharp post on social networks with promises of war until the end and the production of powerful means of destruction.
It is also worth noting the media activity of Defense Minister Serhiy Shoigu, who in recent weeks has been significantly inferior in comparison with already mentioned Prigozhin and Kadyrov.
