The article presents the results of the analysis of online discussions on acute theme in Russian socio-political discourse correlating with the court sentence to Alexei Navalny. The investigation is based on modified discourse analysis methodology to identify deliberative quality of discourse. The analysis is carried out according to such parameters as argumentation, communication culture, interactivity, dialogicity and the degree of dialogue. Online discussions on the pages of Vkontakte social network of five Russian media are used as an empirical basis for the study. The authors come to the conclusion that online deliberation as a form of public dialogue in Russia is poorly developed and has predominantly entertainment nature. Russian online deliberations are very interactive, the degree of dialogue in them is high but the level of argumentation and culture of communication in online discussions is low which prevents the development of online deliberation on political topics as a form of public dialogue.