Reading rule. This material is Russian occupation-press output, presented as an object of study and not endorsed. Claims within it are the occupation administration's framing, not verified fact. Every quote is verbatim occupation-press material, reproduced as an object of study and not endorsed. Each excerpt is under fifteen words and attributed.

One holding, two registers

Short attributed excerpts from the two ZaMedia mastheads. Read side by side they show the division of labour that the theme data measures: one paper legislates, the other persuades.

Public-safe derived layer. Short attributed excerpts only, each under fifteen words and verified as verbatim contiguous text. The full issues are held in the private research hub. ZaMedia asserts copyright over its content.

The gazette

Запорожская правда

60.11 legal-register keyword hits per page. 26 issues, 13 municipality editions, Feb 2024 to Feb 2025.

Настоящее решение вступает…

This decision enters into force…

Запорожская правда · 2024-02-01 · Berdiansk

The gazette's most characteristic sentence. It appears on 73 pages, every one of them in the gazette and none in the flagship.

обнародования муниципальных правовых актов

…promulgation of municipal legal acts.

Запорожская правда · 2024-02-01 · Berdiansk

The phrase that defines the paper's legal purpose: it is the designated place where municipal acts become official.

Назначить публичные слушания

To schedule public hearings.

Запорожская правда · 2024-02-01 · Veselivka

Local consultation as an administrative formality, announced in the same register as drainage and street lighting.

муниципального образования городской округ

…of the municipal formation, city district…

Запорожская правда · 2024-10-09 · Enerhodar; Melitopol; Berdiansk

One issue number, several municipalities. The gazette differentiates by town, which is what makes town-level comparison possible.

The flagship

Запорожский вестник

1.46 legal-register hits per page, but 7.50 for loyalty. 119 issues, weekly, Mar 2024 to Jul 2026.

СТРАНА В НАДЕЖНЫХ РУКАХ

The country is in safe hands.

Запорожский вестник · 2024-03-19

Printed in the week of the Russian presidential vote, in a region under occupation.

ПОСЛАНИЕ ПРЕЗИДЕНТА

Address of the President.

Запорожский вестник · 2024-03-05

The flagship gave its front page and a full transcript to Putin's address to the Federal Assembly.

Вместе со всей страной

Together with the whole country.

Запорожский вестник · 2024-03-12

The recurring motif of belonging: it appears on 27 pages, all of them in the flagship, none in the gazette.

боевики ВСУ

AFU militants.

Запорожский вестник · 2024-03-19

The enemy register lives almost entirely in the flagship. The gazette records 0.02 hits per page for this theme.

Аграрии уже сеют ячмень

Farmers are already sowing barley.

Запорожский вестник · 2024-03-19

Normality as a message: routine agricultural reporting sits beside the war coverage.

Why this matters

The two papers are produced by the same holding, at the same editorial address in Melitopol, and registered on the same day in April 2023. Yet they barely share a vocabulary. The gazette records 0.02 hits per page for the "Ukraine as enemy" theme; the flagship records 0.53, roughly twenty-six times more. Conversely the phrase "Настоящее решение вступает" appears on 73 gazette pages and never once in the flagship. The occupation administration is running its legal machinery and its persuasion machinery as separate products, and the archive lets you measure both.

A further finding sits behind the gazette's end date. Its print archive stops on 5 February 2025, but official publication did not stop: it moved to a registered network edition run by the same holding, which now covers sixteen municipalities rather than thirteen.