In a development that underscores the narrowing political space in Russia, the party New People has climbed to second place in official polling, according to data from the state-backed VTsIOM. Founded in 2020 as a Kremlin-sanctioned vehicle for protest votes, the party now commands 13.4% support—double the 6.6% it recorded a year ago. This places it ahead of the Communist Party (10.9%) and the Liberal Democratic Party (10.1%), marking the first time the gap between New People and older systemic opposition parties has reached 2.5 percentage points.
Support for United Russia, the party de facto led by President Vladimir Putin, has fallen from 36% to 27.7% since April 2024. Putin's own approval rating stood at 65.6% in late April—the lowest since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022. However, VTsIOM is a state-run institution, and its data cannot be independently verified. Wartime censorship creates strong incentives for respondents to give socially acceptable answers.
Political commentator Andrey Pertsev told Euronews that VTsIOM had no obvious reason to inflate New People's numbers, arguing that the party's real support may be higher than published figures suggest. The rise comes as Russian authorities have systematically restricted digital platforms since the invasion. Facebook and Instagram were blocked in spring 2022, YouTube was throttled in August 2024, and by March 2025, WhatsApp and Telegram—each used by more than 90 million people—had become almost entirely inaccessible.
Internet restrictions as a catalyst
According to 2024 data from Mediascope, Telegram reached 74% of Russians aged 12 and over every month, with half using it daily. For many, it functioned as a workplace tool, advertising platform, and primary news source. Frustration peaked in March 2025, when mobile internet disappeared from central Moscow for three weeks. Only a Kremlin-approved whitelist of sites—large banks, the Yandex ecosystem, and state media—remained accessible. Moscow residents could no longer call taxis or pay by card; public toilets stopped working because payment required internet access. The newspaper Kommersant reported the city's economy lost between 3 billion and 5 billion rubles (€35 million to €60 million) in the first five days alone.
New People moved quickly into the newly opened space. Deputy Duma speaker and former presidential candidate Vladislav Davankov launched a petition against Telegram restrictions that gathered over 1 million signatures, although critics noted the voting system allowed multiple submissions. The party congress in March prominently featured the word 'VPN' on stage. Party leader Alexei Nechaev declared, 'We came to represent a new Russia—one that wanted to live without bans and coercion, and solve domestic problems.' He added, 'We fought against restrictions and prohibitions. Against raising the conscription age. Against total internet control. Against violence.'
Political analyst Abbas Gallyamov described the party's rise as 'a sign of growing anti-system sentiment.' 'When there are no fish, even a crayfish counts as fish,' he told Euronews. 'Because the choice is extremely limited, people choose from what exists. It is not the party's achievement—it is the system's negative rating.' Pertsev said many Russians were searching for a safe way to express dissatisfaction and saw New People as a legalised form of protest. 'Public politics is still a living organism, even if this is not real democracy,' he said. 'People have problems, and they turn to whoever at least speaks about them and gently criticises state actions.'
Diverting sympathy
The nominally centrist New People party was founded on 1 March 2020 in what Pertsev said was a way for the Kremlin to channel protest-minded urban voters into a controllable framework, away from non-systemic opposition. In the 2021 parliamentary elections, the party won 5.32% of the vote and 13 Duma seats—the first time in 14 years that Russia's parliament comprised five parties. The party's founder, Nechaev, is an entrepreneur and owner of the Faberlic cosmetics company. Russian outlet Meduza previously reported that he approached Yuri Kovalchuk—one of Putin's closest allies—to sponsor and organise the project. Nechaev has denied any Kremlin connection, despite his party's much more neutral to somewhat supportive stance toward Putin as opposed to its vocal criticism of United Russia.
In a February 2021 New York Times interview, Nechaev outlined three unwritten rules for parties in Russia: do not criticise Putin or his inner circle, do not organise protests, and do not accept foreign funding. New People observes all three, he said. In practice, the party's parliamentary record has been consistently cautious or in favour of the ruling party's decisions. Its deputies have frequently voted alongside United Russia on measures they later criticised in public. Almost the entire party backed legislation allowing regions to abolish mayoral elections despite championing local democracy. Vedomosti reported that Davankov helped draft legislation banning gender transition procedures. The party has also been uncritical of Moscow's all-out invasion of Ukraine in 2022. In spring 2022, alongside every other parliamentary party, New People voted in favour of criminal penalties for spreading 'fake news' about the Russian army.
During his presidential campaign, Davankov appealed carefully to anti-war voters without ever using the word 'war' or calling for Russian troop withdrawal from Ukraine. The day after the presidential election in March 2024, he congratulated Putin and said 'only Putin can win the (war) and achieve sustainable peace.' Regional New People branches have continued to operate within these constraints. The party's rise, while notable, remains a symptom of a system that tolerates only managed dissent. As Gallyamov put it, 'When there are no fish, even a crayfish counts as fish.'
For European observers, the trend highlights the Kremlin's ability to co-opt public frustration while maintaining tight control over political expression. The situation also raises questions about the broader impact of internet restrictions on civil society, a topic that resonates across the continent as EU targets Russian officials over forced deportation of Ukrainian children and other human rights issues remain on the agenda.
