In the report there is analyzed the impact of the main scenario of competition for candidates for the presidency of Russia in the March 2018 elections for the electoral behavior of Russian students. We made an empirical study (2518 respondents, questionnaires; series of focus groups) in order to identify the level of electoral activity and models of electoral absenteeism of Russian students, motivation to participate in voting and refusal to vote, the system of factors determining the strategy of behavior in elections, etc. In the course of the study, the role of social networks in the electoral moods formation of Russian students was revealed, an assessment of the state of the two components of the student's political identity (ideological and personified identity) was analyzed, and the influence of the socio-demographic and status characteristics of Russian students on their electoral behavior was analyzed. It was discovered the accumulation of systemic and situational factors that determine the strategy of students' electoral behavior in the situation of obvious outcome of voting.