Top 5 surnames in the Russian media for a week (July 17-23, 2023)

After almost a month following the tumultuous upheavals, the top five most mentioned socially significant figures have returned to their usual positions. Vladimir Putin has traditionally taken the first place, followed by his antagonist Vladimir Zelensky in the second. US President Joe Biden occupies the third position. The fourth spot goes to the Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, while the fifth belongs to the Mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, who has started his election campaign. Interestingly, the arrest of Igor Girkin (Strelkov) did not generate the same resonance as the one related to Prigozhin. However, this allowed the leader of the Club of Angry Patriots to rise to the tenth position in the rating.

The information space was analysed using a refined methodology based on monitoring 3200 Russian websites, telegram channels, YouTube channels, and significant accounts on VKontakte, Instagram and Facebook.