Digital management in the activities of Russian political parties: the problem field of information flow management in social media

The article is devoted to the analysis of digital management of political parties and proto-party network actors in modern Russia. The author implements an analysis of the Internet practice of eight Russian parliamentary and non-parliamentary political parties, as well as proto-party network actors («United Russia», KPRF, LDPR, «Fair Russia», «Yabloko», Party of Growth, Libertarian Party Russia, «Russia of the Future») in April - June 2020, i.e. at a time when communications with electoral groups in the real environment were extremely limited. The calculation of the Digital Management Index of Russian political parties and pro-party network actors was carried out on the basis of comparing the following indicators: the development of the digital infrastructure; the intersection of offline and online networks; management of information flow in social media; personcentricity of information flow in social media; informality of information flow in social media; integration of information flow in social media; correspondence of the localization of the information flow to the target audience. A high level of potential to scale up electoral support through online communication with target audiences demonstrates the party «Russia of the Future». Most of the units of analysis («United Russia», KPRF, LDPR, LPR) fell into the second segment with an average level of adaptation to limiting communications in the real environment. «Fair Russia», «Yabloko» and Party of Growth demonstrated a low level of adaptation.