Russians involve women in the Kremlin's propaganda – IMI study

One in every four comments in the Russian pro-state media comes from a female expert (23%). As for male experts, their share of comments in the Russian media is significantly larger – 77% of all expert opinions.

This is evidenced by the December 2023 monitoring of gender balance in the Russian media by the Institute of Mass Information (IMI).

Gender imbalance in the Russian pro-state media. A monitoring study. Male experts (77%) v. Female experts (23%); Women featured in the news (69%) v. Men (31%). The sample included 1000 news items (100 from each media outlet under study, taken at the same time, in December 2023). The analysis for the Russian gender balance monitoring covered the top online media outlets in December 2023 according to Liveinternet: Komsomolskaya Pravda, Izvestia, RIA Novosti, Lenta.Ru, RBK, Argumenty.

The IMI study showed that when it comes to political news, Russian pro-state media most often quoted the head of the Russian Central Election Commission, Ella Pamfilova, who promoted the idea that "decent elections will guarantee the strengthening" of Russia and its victory in the "geopolitical battle". In this way, Pamfilova hinted that the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine will also vote for Putin as their president. The chair of the Federation Council, Valentina Matvienko, also had opinions about the importance of the elections, claiming that the whole world would watch the voting, as "the Russian Federation is one of the main architects of a just global future."

"Russian female officials are complicit in Russia's aggressive propaganda and responsible for the genocide of Ukrainians. All their actions and work show that they despise international rights, encroach on the integrity of Ukraine and bear responsibility for all the hostilities in Ukraine," commented Yana Mashkova, an IMI media analyst.

*The monitoring studied the top-10 Russian online media outlets in December 2023, according to Liveinternet: Komsomolskaya Pravda, Izvestia, RIA Novosti, Lenta.Ru, RBK, Argumenty i Fakty, Gazeta.Ru, Moskovskiy Komsomolets, NEWS.ru, Rossiyskaya Gazeta. The sample consisted of 1000 news items.

The full study is available here.