Online publicity and outcomes of individual politically salient criminal cases in an authoritarian regime: evidence from Russia

Abstract

In the present study, we analyze the relationship between domestic and international online publicity and individual outcomes of suspects in three recent politically salient cases in Russia. The analysis is based on the data from Telegram – one of the most politically relevant online platforms in contemporary Russia, – Google News and data about individual criminal cases. We find that international online publicity is associated with decreased likelihood of imprisonment for individual suspects, while the relationship between the latter and domestic publicity is less straightforward. Our findings contribute to the scholarship on the connection between (online) publicity and political repression relevant for Russia and, potentially, other autocracies.

Keywords

• Political repression
• online publicity
• authoritarianism
• international publicity
• internet