In 2024, Vladimir Putin lost a polling station in this Siberian science district. Last month, three local precincts bucked national voting trends again. Why?

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.