Abstract
Chapter 5 examines the online presence of Russian political parties, analyzing their web content in the context of both domestic politics and the normative role of parties in democracies. The study analyzes the web presence of the four parties that held list seats in the 2007–2011 Russian parliament: pro-government United Russia, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, and a center-left party called A Just Russia. The analysis shows that online content tended to mirror offline political realities in Russia, although some of the websites offered some room for alternative political viewpoints in the Russian information sphere. The findings suggest that a broad theory about the success or failure of political parties online may miss important nuances about the ways in which parties in non-free states can provide small spaces of political contestation that are not available in the mainstream media.
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