Analyzing Far-Right Telegram Channels as Constituents of Information Autocracy in Russia

TL;DR

The paper investigates how Russian far-right Telegram channels shape perceptions of political figures through memes, arguing that memes function as co-produced propaganda that blends state ideologies with extremist framing. It analyzes a large-scale visual dataset of approximately $200{,}000$ images collected from public channels between $2022$ and $2025$ using computer-vision and unsupervised clustering to identify memes featuring Putin, Shoigu, Zelensky, Biden, and Trump and to reveal recurring visual patterns. The authors find that these memes contribute to legitimation and delegitimization narratives that align with the regime’s informational autocracy, effectively outsourcing propaganda while sustaining authoritarian legitimacy. The study demonstrates the value of large-scale multimodal analysis for examining online propaganda and provides methodological insights for monitoring decentralized propaganda ecosystems in contemporary authoritarian contexts.

Abstract

This study examines how Russian far-right communities on Telegram shape perceptions of political figures through memes and visual narratives. Far from passive spectators, these actors co-produce propaganda, blending state-aligned messages with their own extremist framings. In Russia, such groups are central because they articulate the ideological foundations of the war against Ukraine and reflect the regime's gradual drift toward ultranationalist rhetoric. Drawing on a dataset of 200,000 images from expert-selected far-right Telegram channels, the study employs computer vision and unsupervised clustering to identify memes featuring Russian (Putin, Shoigu) and foreign politicians (Zelensky, Biden, Trump) and to reveal recurrent visual patterns in their representation. By leveraging the large-scale and temporal depth of this dataset, the analysis uncovers differential patterns of legitimation and delegitimation across actors and over time. These insights are not attainable in smaller-scale studies. Preliminary findings show that far-right memes function as instruments of propaganda co-production. These communities do not simply echo official messages but generate bottom-up narratives of legitimation and delegitimation that align with state ideology. By framing leaders as heroic and opponents as corrupt or weak, far-right actors act as informal co-creators of authoritarian legitimacy within Russia's informational autocracy.