WHAT RUSSIANS WERE TALKING ABOUT IN 2024 AND AT THE BEGINNING OF 2025

The Institute for Conflict Studies and Analysis of Russia conducted complex media research dedicated to the main topics that attracted interest of Russians in 2024, how they reacted to them, as well as how important these topics were for Russian propaganda and to what extent it tried to manipulate them.

Key findings are based on data analysis using artificial intelligence. We monitored keywords and phrases that reflect the above issues, along with related topics. This detailed analysis provides a clear understanding of Russian society's attitudes, the main topics of daily discussions, and the most common reactions of Russian citizens in the context of the full-scale aggression against Ukraine.

The main topics that attracted the most attention and triggered the most reactions and comments from Russian users in 2024 fall into three main blocks.

First block — economic and financial problems.

The actualization of these issues for Russian society throughout 2024, and especially in its second half, is evident by the significant interest of users in relevant messages, as well as the active attempts by the Russian authorities to shift public attention away from them or, at least, moderate these topics.

One of the most significant indicators of the actualization of economic and financial problems for Russians is the total number of Russian Telegram-message views about the Central Bank of Russia's policy regarding rising inflation. In 2024, this amounted to over 600 million, with the number of reactions to these messages exceeding 7.5 million.

Inflation acceleration led to a noticeable increase in the prices of all types of goods and services, including housing and utility services. Throughout 2024, messages about the rise in utility prices in Russian Telegram received 371 million views and 4.6 million reactions.

In the first two weeks of January 2025, the topic of rising tariffs continued its trend, gathering 56.6 million views and almost one million reactions. More than 560 compromised sources and 1,200 bots were involved in moderating the public discussion during this period.

Another indicator is strong interest among Russian social media users in ruble devaluation, closely linked to inflation and rising prices. Sensitivity to this issue is heightened by collective trauma from sharp ruble crashes since 1991, significantly worsening living conditions for general population. Total views of relevant Telegram messages in Russia in 2024 reached 321 million, with 3.35 million reactions.

Second block — the Russian-Ukrainian war.

The Kursk operation was one of the top events in 2024, given Russian interest in it. In just five months of 2024 (starting from the operation launch on August 6), there were 88,000 posts made in Russian segment of Telegram, which garnered 1.44 billion views and over 29 million reactions. This is a key indicator, considering the initial attempt by Russian propaganda to suppress the fact of the operational failure of Russian forces in the Kursk region. Due to the scale of the event, this was not possible.

In the following months, Russian propaganda used various approaches to explain the inability of the Russian side to drive the Armed Forces of Ukraine off its territory. This included the involvement of over 1,200 compromised channels and 3,800 bots for its information campaigns.

One of the main tactics used by the Kremlin to reduce the negative effects of the Kursk operation was actively promoting the narrative of significant Russian army successes in Donbas, including through military channels. However, in 2024, the Russian army still failed to capture Pokrovsk. Relevant messages in z-channels regarding the fighting near Pokrovsk received 744 million views and nearly 12 million reactions.

Third block — internal political stability and geopolitical influence of the Kremlin.

From a quantitative perspective, the topic of Vladimir Putin's re-election garnered the highest number of views and publications due to clear reason — all the power of Russian propaganda focused on covering this event, followed by preparations for the inauguration and the ceremony itself.

At the same time, after the Kursk operation launch, a trend emerged where more than half of the comments on Telegram messages mentioning Vladimir Putin were negative. On average, this accounted for 200,000 messages per month, with the majority receiving negative reactions from users.

The death of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny in prison on February 16, 2024, became one of the most resonant events of the past year. On that day, relevant Telegram messages in Russia received 385 million views. The total number of views during February-March 2024 reached 875 million, with nearly 15 million reactions. 58% of user reactions were negative.

Furthermore, the fall of Assad's regime in Syria came as a surprise and sparked active discussions in the Russian media space. On December 10, 2024, Telegram messages in Russia about active offensive actions by Syrian opposition forces gathered over 140 million views. The total number of views for the short December 2024 reached 935 million, with 16 million reactions, mostly negative.

The importance of these events for the Kremlin is evident from the significant propaganda resources deployed, including over 1,200 compromised sources and 8,000 bots.

One of the most resonant events in 2024 was the terrorist attack at "Crocus City Hall," which occurred on the evening of March 22. On March 23, Telegram messages about the attack in Russia gathered over 1.75 billion views. The total number of views for 2024 amounted to 7.69 billion, with 104 million reactions, mostly negative.

The scale of the information campaign and its importance to the Kremlin is underlined by the number of channels used to spread the relevant narratives and bots that steered the discussion in a certain direction: more than 1,800 compromised communication channels and almost 10,000 bots.

After the brutal terrorist attack at "Crocus City Hall," Russian propaganda intensified the promotion of a xenophobic agenda in the context of migration issues. The main collocations associated with labor migration were banditry, violence, extremism, and terrorism. In this campaign, nearly a thousand compromised sources spread the relevant messages in the Russian segment of Telegram in 2024.

In 2024, Russian Telegram saw 30,000 relevant messages, with nearly 20,000 having a negative tone. These messages generated a total of 254 million views.

Analysis of social media in the first two weeks of 2025 shows that nearly all the most popular discussion topics in 2024 remain relevant for Russian users this year

For a detailed report, see the presentation.