How Russia’s Parliament speaks: German data analysts team up with Russian journalists to graph every talking point discussed in the State Duma over the past 27 years

On September 17, voting began across Russia in parliamentary elections that will span three days. These contests are taking place against the backdrop of an unprecedented crackdown on opposition politicians, independent media outlets, and generally anyone who's managed to rub the state authorities the wrong way. In this campaign of repression, various laws adopted by the State Duma (the very institution now up for grabs at the polls) have provided the key legal grounds for Russia's expanded policing. For a better grasp of what Russia's parliamentarians have actually been doing all these years, the German project dekoder and journalists at Novaya Gazeta analyzed everything said at State Duma sessions between 1994 and 2021. One finding in this study: unlike Russia's president, the country's federal lawmakers are not shy about speaking Alexey Navalny's name. Original Article: https://meduza.io/en/feature/2021/09/17/how-russia-s-parliament-speaks