Russian President Vladimir Putin. Photograph courtesy of the Kremlin
From opposing shale gas exploration to defending US whistle-blower Edward Snowden, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his PR machine have been forging an unlikely alliance with Western protest voices.
The scene was improbable to say the least. On July 12th, 2013, Tanya Lokshina, Deputy Director for Human Rights Watch Russia and long-time critic of Putin’s Russia, found herself in a press conference at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport listening to American refugee Edward Snowden read a carefully written press statement to a crowd of journalists and human rights activists. After harshly critiquing the US government, busy vigorously employing every tool in its diplomatic arsenal to bring Snowden back to American territory, the former Booz Allen contractor praised Russia as “the first country to stand against human rights violations by the powerful rather than the powerless”.
The conference turned into an impressive PR event for President Putin, as many of the very activists who spend their days criticizing his United Russia administration found themselves listening to an American fugitive praising the Kremlin for its human rights record. Snowden was accompanied by Olga Kostina, probably the only individual who runsboth a human rights organization called ‘Resistance’ (Soprotivlenie in Russian) and is in charge of PR for the secret police, the FSB (formerly known as the KGB). Olga Konstina’s husband, Konstantin Kostin, is a renowned political strategist, largely credited with bringing Putin into office in 2000 and 2004, and his presence largely seems to confirm the picture of Snowden’s conference as an international press op for the Russian regime.
Putin the environmentalist
One can question how important a positive image in the West really is for the Kremlin, but the fact is that they try very hard to win over certain sections of North America and Western Europe. Russia Today (RT), a multi-lingual state-funded news site and television network, very successfully follows and incorporates trends in the Western media and blogosphere, cleverly injecting the views of the Kremlin along the way. Anti-fracking protests staged by environmental groups in the West, for example, received considerable coverage on RT’s English site. Putin himself voiced concern over the “huge” environmental risks of shale production at a press conference on April 25th, 2013.
While it may seem strange that Putin, who presides over the world’s biggest petro-state, would come out as a die-hard environmentalist, one must remember that Russia’s state-owned giant Gazprom, which supplies around 25% Europe’s gas and accounted for 70% of Russian exports in 2012 (up from 50% in the mid-1990s), has everything to lose from the United States and other countries exploiting their shale gas reserves, especially its former Soviet vassals in Eastern Europe.
For example, it is difficult to think of a country that has been more dependent on Russia than its western neighbour Ukraine. In 2009, after a dispute over prices, the Russian government cut off all gas transfers going to Ukraine, temporarily leaving much of Europe dry. The dispute ended with Ukrainian Vice-President Yulia Tymoshenko pledging her country to a 10-year contract with Ukraine paying above-market rates for an amount of gas that exceeds actual needs.
Now, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has given the green light to the signing of a $10 billion deal with Royal Dutch Shell to exploit his country’s shale gas reserves and is using this newfound source of energy independence to extricate itself from Russia’s orbit. This November, Yanukovych will sign an Association Agreement with the European Union, a defiant move against Russia. What is impressive, though, is how the Kremlin has managed to reframe its own geopolitical interests as universal principles widely shared by a liberal Western audience.
The enemy of my enemy…
‘Question more’ is the omnipresent slogan of RT’s English site, perfectly directing its content to a large swathe of online denizens unwilling to swallow the conventional wisdom broadcast by ‘mainstream’ Western media outlets. Hit conspiracy films, such as the ‘Zeitgeist’ series, have keenly displayed the lack of trust in official news sources on both sides of the Atlantic. In 2012, RT broadcasted a 12-episode series entitled ‘World Tomorrow’, where Wikileaks founder and editor Julian Assange conducted a series of political interviews with both international protest figures, such as leaders of the Occupy movement in London and New York, and established critics of the United States, such as Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa.
The irony of The Julian Assange Show is the same as that of Edward Snowden’s Moscow press conference. While Assange has continually committed himself to protecting individual freedoms and “fighting state oppression”, he has found himself allying with Putin’s Russia, a country that ranks 148th out of 179 countries in the 2013 World Press Freedom Index, below countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo. On an ideological scale from individual freedom to state control, Putin and Assange would seem to be on opposite ends, yet have engaged in a strategic alliance of sorts. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, as the old saying goes.
While the Kremlin seems to have found an effective way of tapping into the discontent of many Westerners with their own governments, it is unclear to what extent a news outlet such as RT can cover up the chasm that exists between the values of many liberal Western readers and United Russia partisans. Throughout the on-going wave of bad press Putin has been receiving for his party’s controversial ‘gay propaganda law’, for example, RT has alternated between construing the law as an invention of the Western media/governments and as a legitimate law enjoying widespread support in Russia. It seems doubtful, though, that such strategies will succeed in winning over Western audiences. At the end of the day, readers would do well to follow RT’s motto for any news site from any region in the world and ‘question more’, but especially if it comes from someone like this.
10 Comments
Hi,
Putin’s well-oiled PR machine. An opportunist or a maturing politician?
In many ways President Putin has made political capital both at home and
aboard on the disarray of the West. The foreign policy mess of both America and Britain together with the economic weakness of both lands has offered President Putin a vacuum of chance, which he has taken. Economically aided by the immense energy resources of Russia he has taken many parts of Europe and Asia under his wing and politically gained influence from the disturbing revelations of Mr. Snowden over the shocking activity of the NSA and the British equivalent. This has forged new alliances in Europe and redefined friends, this especially in Germany. A polite star is born.
A polite star? More like an arrogant star, a star that knows he is pretty much invinsible — he has been in power for almost 15 years and knows that he can easily “win” another election. If Putin runs in 2018 (and I think he will) for another 6-year turn, by the end of that turn he would have been in power longer that Leonid Brezhnev in the 60’s and 70’s.
USA=most hypocretical and two-faced country in the world.
If a country agreed to serve as US underling you are blind to “human righs, woment rights” and so on.
If a country (USSR in the past and Russian Federation nowadays) chooses it’s own path and do not want to be a source for increasing wealth of US citisens only (yep, no one is obliged to sell you – sorry, you prefer “give” – oil for 0.05$ per barrel to let you ride your body in F350 from home to McDonalds and pay-off 14 trillion debt), then it “Evil Empire to be bombed”… Sorry, not happend. it’s our natural resources and we will use them as we please. You want it? Pay a fair price/agree our terms and change you way of life to suite you possibilities, not your desires.
Example:
Saudi Arabia (friend of US): death for being gay (also a lot of other issues according human rights, google it).
Russia: a law against a gay propaganda amoung UNDERAGE CHILDREN.
For breaking a law – fine. Even no imprisonment (sadly)
And there is no restrictions to spread you lies (my personal opinion, may also be an honest mistake) that being a gay is “natural”, or advertise gay way of life to grownups. .
“It seems doubtful, though, that such strategies will succeed in winning over Western audiences.” – RT has the highest rating among all international TV channels for audience Influential Opinion Leaders, C-Suites, Business decision Makers in Europe according to the research of EMS and Mendelsohn.
Ratinsg is not everything. Just because somebody is watching, doesn’t mean they like or buy what they are seeing. Ratings matter for commercial TV channels, like CNN, BBC. RT is a non-profit organization whose budget is fully paid by the Russian government. They are not in this business for making money, they have ONLY ONE GOAL: to form opinion.
When it comes to forming opinion about matters outside Russia, it seems they are at a clear advantage because there’s demand for such news in the West. However, — and that’s what the author was trying to present in the article — when it comes to Russian news and presenting them to the West, RT is challenged by the fact that their liberal and libertarian-minded audience will have to suspend their beliefs and values to come to the RT side. In my view, it’s not likely to happen.
“Influential Opinion Leaders, C-Suites, Business decision Makers in Europe” — yes, that’s because these categories of people, due to their occupation, need to be informed about various opinions on a particular subject to form their own decision. I suspect they watch Fahrid Zacharia on CCN as much as they do the Keiser report in RT.
Dirty anti-Russian propaganda.
Enough to make of Russia “image of enemy”! Anti-Russian hysteria in America over the edge.
Lies and manipulation of the facts have become the norm for American pseudo-journalists.
Shame on you!
Western pseudo-journalists are constantly engaged in self-PR at the expense of Russia, and show their “loyalty” to the American regime (hoping for material gain).
America is the Empire of Lies, inhabited by first-class hypocrites.
I am wondering, what the stupid idiots write papers about Russia in Western Press? – “… country that ranks 148th out
of 179 countries in the 2013 World Press Freedom Index”? – Who and how
have painted this index? – I ranked 178-th place for always lying
Britain. And what? Can you publish anything against gays – in Britain? –
No. Can you publish anything about the fact that Conquist exaggerated the number of prisoners in USSR in Stalin’s time an 10 (!) times and in the worst years during the Stalin’s
rule, after the war, the total number of prisoners, including mobsters,
killers collaborationist was smaller that number of prisoners in the
USA today? – Ha-ha-ha. I laugh on you, stupid girl.
Although I agree with the points you made, I wish you took a bit more time to refine the article — it reads a bit haphazard and disjointed. I was especially baffled by your closing line and the link to the clip of Putin shooting a tiger with a tranquilizer. How is this relevant to the story?
>country that ranks 148th out of 179 countries in the 2013 World Press Freedom Index
He-he. Some people really belive this type of primitive propaganda. Dear Caroline, ‘Question more’. And before beliving the next “the most objective ranks” always ask “Who payed for it?” :)