Key events associated with media-presence peaks for twelve European politicians in Russian-language media (2025)

This dataset documents prominent peaks in media presence for a sample of twelve European politicians covered in Russian-language media during 2025. The peaks were identified using the Context-Aware Media Presence Index (CMPI), introduced and discussed in the accompanying paper. Each observation corresponds to an episode of heightened media attention and links quantitative CMPI signals to concrete political events or statement-driven news triggers.For each politician, daily CMPI time series were examined and peak episodes were defined as values exceeding two standard deviations above the mean of that politician’s full time series. Consecutive days above this threshold were grouped into a single episode. Each episode is represented by a start date and an end date; for single-day peaks these dates coincide. The date on which CMPI reached its maximum within the episode is recorded separately as the peak date.Each peak was contextualised by examining the content of the dominant stories (contextual clusters) associated with the peak date. A short description of the event(s) driving the peak is provided, together with a coarse event-type classification distinguishing bounded political developments (e.g. meetings, summits, campaigns, crises) from statement-driven events based on widely amplified public remarks or announcements.Columns:event_number: Integer identifier of the peak episode (for reference and convenience).politician: Name of the politician whose CMPI time series contains the peak.event_type: Type of event associated with the peak; either political development (bounded political events such as meetings, summits, campaigns, or crises) or statement (media attention driven primarily by widely amplified public remarks or announcements).start_date: First date of the peak episode (first day exceeding the threshold).end_date: Last date of the peak episode (last day exceeding the threshold).peak_date: Date within the episode on which CMPI reached its maximum value.event_context_on_peak_date: Short textual description of the event associated with the peak, based on the dominant contextual cluster on the peak date.