War or Escape: How Russian TV Split in 2025

The independent outlet Vot Tak reviewed 2025 and identified the dominant themes shaping Russian TV. One trend stood out: shows released as a series in 2025 either focused entirely on the full-scale invasion of Ukraine or completely avoided it.

Projects in the first category included "Landyshi" ("Lilies of the Valley"), "Opolchenskiy Romans" ("Militia Romance"), and "Svoi" ("Our Own"). All other series fell into the second group.

"Landyshi" follows a privileged young woman on the run who marries a lieutenant from the Vologda Oblast. In its first season, released in 2025, the protagonist adapts to the harsh life of a military unit and abandons her pacifist beliefs. The second season premiered January 1, 2026, and centers on her search for a husband who has gone missing at the front. According to Kinopoisk, "Landyshi" was the most-searched Russian TV series of 2025.

"Opolchenskiy Romans" is an adaptation of a book by writer Zakhar Prilepin. As in many Russian war films and series, the narrative focuses on an ideological transformation: a "Moscow liberal" becomes a "patriot" after witnessing combat firsthand. The same arc appeared in the series "20/22" and the film "Svidetel" ("The Witness"). The series Svoi tells the story of volunteers from Donetsk who helped civilians in Mariupol during the first months of the war.

Despite pressure from patriotic audiences, Vot Tak noted that series about the ongoing war in Ukraine remain relatively rare. Stories about World War II continue to dominate Russian television.

Most other shows released in 2025 avoided the war entirely. A notable example is "Sankzioner" ("The Sanctioned Man"), starring Dmitry Nagiyev, which aired on the STS network. The plot follows a businessman who made his fortune in Europe and returns to his native village just as European officials seize his assets. While the storyline clearly alludes to sanctions imposed on Russian oligarchs in February 2022, the reasons for the asset seizure are never explicitly stated, even though they serve as the story’s central catalyst.

According to Vot Tak, the defining theme of Russian series in 2025 was relocation to the provinces, often framed as a return home. In "Vse pro eto" ("All about It"), a young sexologist returns to his native village. In "Kulinarnyy tekhnikum" ("Culinary College"), a Moscow chef moves back home and takes a teaching job at a local technical school.

Several comedies revolve around a first encounter with rural life. In "Znakhar" ("The Healer"), a Muscovite ends up in a village in southern Russia and pretends to be a doctor. In "Khutor" ("The Farmstead"), a financial guru flees into the forest before landing in a "re-education" village.

Dramedies centered on open relationships remained popular. New releases included "Opasnaya blizost" ("Dangerous Proximity") and "Ostatsya druzyami" ("Staying Friends"), alongside a second season of "Otkrytyy brak" ("Open Marriage") and "Iskusstvo soblazna" ("The Art of Seduction"), a series about exposing unfaithful spouses.

Russian series also continued to mine the past. "Puteshestvie na solntse i obratno" ("Journey to the Sun and Back") used the 1980s and 1990s as a backdrop for a coming-of-age drama, while "Kambek" ("Comeback") explored the early 2000s.

The 1990s were also central to "Autsors" ("Outsourcing"). The series portrays brutal provincial life, where prison guards who carry out executions sell their right to kill inmates to the victims’ relatives. In this case, the past serves less as a source of nostalgia than as a lens for discussing contemporary violence.

The most expensive series of the year, "Khroniki russkoy revolyutsii" ("Chronicles of the Russian Revolution"), also focused on history, as did "Konstantinopol," which told the story of émigrés fleeing Soviet Russia after the Bolsheviks came to power.

Television in Russia has definitively lost ground to streaming platforms, Vot Tak reported. Most major projects are now commissioned by streaming services, a shift driven by looser censorship and greater creative freedom.

A hybrid release model is increasingly common, with premieres on streaming platforms followed by later broadcasts on traditional TV. "Landyshi" debuted on Wink on January 1 and reached STS on February 23. "Khroniki russkoy revolyutsii" appeared on Start 17 days before airing on the Rossiya-1 channel.

The remake trend continued in 2025. The sitcom "Univer" ("University") added yet another spinoff, "Univer. Molodye" ("Univer: The Young"), featuring a new cast. Even relatively recent hits returned: the first two seasons of "Method" aired on Pervy Kanal channel, while the third season premiered on Kinopoisk.

Producers also turned to Soviet classics. After "Protivostoyanie" ("The Confrontation") in 2024, 2025 saw "Moskva slezam ne verit" ("Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears"). Unlike the earlier remake, which preserved the late-Soviet setting, the new series relocated the story to the present day, creating an idealized version of Moscow.

Evaluating popularity has also become more difficult. Kinopoisk, Russia’s equivalent of IMDb, was acquired by Yandex in 2013 and later became a full-fledged streaming service. In recent years, ratings for Russian series have become unusually high.

It is now actually difficulte to find a recent Russian series with low user scores. Even widely criticized remakes often rate higher than their originals. "Papiny dochki. Novye" ("Daddy’s Girls: New"), with a rating of 8.3, matches American series "Fargo" and surpasses "Mad Men." War-themed series also receive high ratings. "Opolchenskiy Romans," for example, holds an 8.1 score, on par with Russia’s hit "Slovo Patsana" ("The Boy’s Word") and higher than "Fallout."