United Russia shrinks its supporter database by 15 million

United Russia has cleansed its supporter database in preparation for the 2024 presidential election. The party removed about 15 million people, says RBC, citing sources within the party.

In February 2022, Kommersant reported that United Russia had 25 million people in its database, but an internal audit showed that only about 40% of them were truly loyal to the authorities.

RBC's source said that the number of supporters dropped from 25 million to approximately 10 million during the sweep.

Everyone whose data "was in any doubt - phone number, date of birth, and so on - was removed from the database," said one of the newspaper's sources. They also used a special program to analyze social media and remove people who've, for example, liked Alexey Navalny's posts.

The party is now working to boost its supporters, and its plans call for 30 million by 2024.

RBC's sources say that deputies at all levels have a set KPI for attracting supporters, which must be met by the end of 2022. For example, State Duma single-mandate lawmakers must recruit 1,500 new supporters (500 voters), regional legislature deputies must get 500 supporters (300 voters), and municipal legislature single-mandate lawmakers must get 150 supporters (50 voters).