“Anti-Regime Influentials” Across Platforms: A Case Study of the Free Navalny Protests in Russia

The full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia in 2022 has put the future Russian opposition further at stake. new limitations towards political, internet, and press freedoms have led to a severe disintegration anti-regime movement Russia, including its leaders like Alexey Navalny. Digital platforms had previously hosted anti-Kremlin narratives online played role facilitation protests. latest scalable rallies date were Free Navalny protests, caused imprisonment 2021. strengthened voice regime critics; however, their growing visibility suppression country. To understand this paradox, we ask<em> </em>which main communicators influential protests’ discussions on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, how platform features facilitated influence during We develop multi-platform methodological workflow comprising network analysis, social media analytics, qualitative methods map publics identify opinion leaders. also evaluate cultures use various seeking high online. distinguish between contextual feature that potentially aid popularity such actors propose cautiously confer mobilisation democratisation potential digital under authoritarianism.