Political participation and digital communications of Russians after the start of the SMO: features and main forms

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The article is devoted to identifying key changes in the practices of political participation of Russian citizens during the period of a Special military operation on the territory of Ukraine, caused, among other things, by the transformation of public political discourse and the digital environment. Analyzing the phenomenon of social consolidation in the conditions of ITS, key models of political participation and changes in media consumption of Russians over the past two years, the author concludes that after February 24, 2022, a certain transformation of public discourse and structure of media consumption, as well as related practices of political participation of Russians, took place in Russia. There is a differentiation of the socially active part of the population into two unequal groups: on the one hand, a dissenting protest minority, whose main form of political participation and "statements" were emigration or spontaneous protests; on the other hand, a consolidated patriotic majority expressing support for the activities of the country's leadership through traditional as well as new forms of participation: charity, volunteering, "pro-government" electoral behavior, information and campaigning work. It is also noted that the prevailing practices of political participation due to the use of digital technologies today are volunteer activities (including "virtual volunteering"), protest political participation, as well as conventional practices of electoral participation using remote electronic voting technologies.