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In 2024, Vladimir Putin lost a polling station in this Siberian science district. Last month, three local precincts bucked national voting trends again. Why?
Source: 7×7
Novosibirsk State University, August 30, 2025
Viktor Karasev / Alamy / Scanpix / LETA
Yabloko’s State Duma candidate Dmitry Shabanov won the vote at three polling stations in Novosibirsk’s Akademgorodok in 2026, while United Russia failed to finish first in the party-list vote at those stations. During the 2024 presidential election, New People candidate Vladislav Davankov won at a polling station in a Novosibirsk State University (NSU) dormitory. The news outlet 7×7 visited Akademgorodok to ask voters at these polling stations — students, NSU faculty, and other residents — what they thought of the results. Meduza is translating the report in full.
Warning: This article contains profanity.
‘Fucking sick of the war and the crooks and thieves’
On the final day of voting, lines formed at the polling stations in the NSU dormitory and the university’s main administrative building. Some people who spoke to 7×7 said they waited two to two and a half hours to vote.
Kirill, an NSU student, arrived at the polling station in the administrative building on Sunday afternoon. He said:
There were lots of students around — they made up the vast majority of the line. Of course, there were other people too, but it was mostly students and NSU staff. People weren’t talking much about voting. They were mainly discussing science, exchanging contact information, or talking to people they knew at the other end of the line. Some were recording videos. Some waited patiently, and those who’d come without friends just looked around. I was in line with a friend.
Mark, a student at NSU’s Institute of Intelligent Robotics, also voted in the administrative building. He couldn’t choose between the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and New People in the party-list vote, so he flipped a coin. He ended up voting for New People and for Yabloko candidate Dmitry Shabanov in the single-member district race. He said:
There’s a sense of exhaustion with the special military operation, internet restrictions, and some other problems, but also a growing hope that our votes will make some people at the top realize that those willing to support the ruling party don’t make up a majority of the population.
Other students who spoke to 7×7 also said they voted as they did because they were tired of the war, distrusted the ruling party, and hoped their votes would be noticed. Ivan put his motivation bluntly: “I voted against them because I’m fucking sick of the war and the crooks and thieves.”
For Igor, an NSU student, it was important to vote “for peace.” He feared that Yabloko might “not survive” until the next election. He chose Dmitry Shabanov in the single-member district race and decided to spoil his party-list ballot:
A Yabloko candidate managed to win at three polling stations because people could see that Yabloko is the only party in Russia that stands for peace. As things stand, elections are the only legal way to express our political will, so students decided not to miss the chance to express their views at the ballot box.
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‘It’s hard to expect them to vote just to go through the motions’
Shabanov won at the three polling stations but lost the district overall. Across District 139, the Yabloko candidate received just 7.31% of the vote, while the winner, Alexander Aksenenko of A Just Russia, received 45.79%. At the NSU dormitory polling station, however, Shabanov won 51.27% of the vote.
These polling stations also stood out in the party-list vote. United Russia came first in all 10 of Novosibirsk’s administrative districts, including Sovetsky District. But it did not finish first at the three Akademgorodok polling stations where Shabanov won.
Akademgorodok’s distinctive voting patterns date back to at least the early 2010s. According to the Higher School of Economics’ Laboratory for Regional Political Research, United Russia received 22.02% of the vote here in the 2011 State Duma election — its worst result in Novosibirsk — while the Communist Party received 39.16%.
Poll workers at NSU empty ballot boxes on the final day of voting. Novosibirsk, September 20, 2026
Alexander Kryazhev / RIA Novosti / Sputnik / IMAGO / SNA / Scanpix / LETA
Akademgorodok recorded similar results in later years. In 2020, a majority of voters at two local polling stations voted against amendments to the Constitution: 54.72% and 69.2%. In the 2024 presidential election, Vladislav Davankov received 42.5% of the vote at the NSU dormitory polling station, beating Vladimir Putin.
In the 2025 elections, Communist Party candidates won in three of Sovetsky District’s four city council constituencies. Across Novosibirsk, however, United Russia took 40 of the 50 seats. Ruling-party candidates also lost in two regional legislature constituencies that include parts of Sovetsky District: Communist Stanislav Lysenko won in Constituency 36, and Vladislav Plotnikov of A Just Russia won in Constituency 37.
People who spoke to 7×7 attributed the results to Akademgorodok’s distinctive character.
Akademgorodok was established in the late 1950s as a research center for the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences. It is home to research institutes and Novosibirsk State University, as well as scientists, students, and faculty.
Kirill, the NSU student, said:
Akademgorodok could be considered one of the last oases of democracy in Russia. There are several reasons for that: It’s far from the administrative center, it can develop its own elite and help them reach positions of authority, and our community has a strong desire to build connections among equals and help one another. There’s also a strong sense of continuity between generations.
He said the local culture had also been passed down to the new generations of students who came to Novosibirsk from across the country:
Students go to the same bars and restaurants as their professors, departments preserve student traditions that go back decades, and professors have the courage to stand by their views and discuss them. If you teach people to think for themselves, which is essential in science, it’s hard to expect them to vote just for show, just to go through the motions.
Oleg, a local resident, said voters’ ages might also have influenced the results at the three polling stations:
Most likely, the average voter is a little younger: These three polling stations serve the NSU dormitories and newer apartment buildings… where, 10 years ago, they were trying to house young scientists and their families.
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‘My vote didn’t do much to change Russia’s future’
But even for those whose candidates won at individual polling stations, the election results were not an unqualified victory.
Mark said he felt “a deep sadness” for several days after voting: “I’m still aware that my vote didn’t do much to change Russia’s future, even if it helped Dmitry Shabanov win at the polling station where I voted.”
Mark still plans to vote in the next election: “I’ll keep showing that I’m one of those who still vote independently, even if I’m part of a 10% minority. And because I want a more peaceful life in Russia.”
The NSU campus
Alamy / Vida Press
After the election, Ivan felt “empty and disappointed.” He is not yet sure whether he will vote again:
Probably, if the opposition can agree on a common approach, then yes. But as long as it’s divided and our plan B is to spoil our ballots, there’s no point in elections. And I don’t see the point of standing in line for another two hours just to spread our votes across all the candidates.
By contrast, Anna, an English teacher who lives in Akademgorodok, was encouraged by the results at the three polling stations:
I was impressed that Shabanov came out on top at our polling stations. It’s really nice to see that kind of civic awareness among my neighbors. Of course I’ll vote again. I think, in our circumstances, it’s important to keep exercising our civic muscles however we can.
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