From (anti)vaccination to (anti)elections: features of the electoral attitudes of the anti-vaxxers in Russia

The article presents the results of applied research aimed at detecting the relationship between anti-vaccination strategies and electoral orientations of Russians. The research method is based on the comparison of digital data arrays devoted, on the one hand, to the study of digital activity of anti-vaccination movement, on the other hand, to a comprehensive analysis of information flows of Russian political parties through modern methods and tools of social media analytics. According to the results of the study, the authors conclude that there is no significant relationship between the political and party preferences of citizens and their anti-vaccination activity. The activities of Russian anti-vaxxers are rather aimed at ignoring elections as a derivative of the state system, to which there is a clear distrust. Despite the conscious use of anti-vaccination discourse by some party forces, the results of such work are limited in advance and may backfire.