"Continent of freedom" for foreigners and "Soviet Union 2.0" for their own – the Kremlin is working on Russia’s post-war image

IRYNA BALACHUK - WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022, 15:57

The Kremlin has started developing an "image of Russia after the war": the result should be "two images" – one acceptable to a foreign audience and the Russian elite, and another understandable to a "simple Russian".

Source: Meduza with reference to sources

Quote from "Meduza": "The result of the quest should be two images of Russia." The first one is for "export", designed for a foreign audience and Russian elites. The second one should be clear and appropriate to the domestic audience, the majority of Russian citizens.

The basis of this "image" could be the concept of a "free continent" – a country that preserves the spirit of "Old Europe".

Details: It is reported that the head of the Kremlin's internal political bloc and curator of the so-called "Luhansk People's Republic/Donetsk People's Republic" and the territories of the Kherson Oblast and Zaporizhzhia Oblast of Ukraine temporarily occupied by Russian troops, Serhii Kyriienko, was instructed to develop the "image of Russia".

According to the publication’s source, scientists and political scientists are involved in the discussion – they have been invited to talk and asked to state their view – regarding how, in their opinion, it would be "fitting and correct".

The Expert Institute for Social Research (EISR) is also playing an active part in the development. According to sources close to the Putin administration, it was the EISR that proposed an "export version" of Russia's image.

According to this concept, Russia should become a "continent of freedom" for people of right-wing beliefs from all over the world. The Kremlin does not see any contradiction with the rhetoric about the "denazification" of Ukraine, which is allegedly being carried out by Russian troops, because for Russia "a right-wing individual is a traditionalist and conservative, and not a follower of Nazism".

According to a source familiar with the discussion, the emphasis in the development of the "export" version was initially placed on states following a "special path" – Venezuela, India – "whose leadership does not want to have anything in common with Europe and is not shy about dictatorial habits".

But the source added that such a concept was incomprehensible to Putin and his security entourage, because they want to see Russia as "a correct, right-wing, traditional Europe, without gay parades, and the influence of minorities and the United States".

According to the source, Kyriienko himself understands the concept of following a "special path" – a state that "can violate generally accepted rules".

For "internal use", the Kremlin has so far developed the concept of "Russia restoring the lands whose inhabitants want to be spiritually Russian". According to the publication’s sources, this is "something similar to a Soviet Union 2.0".

It is noted that, at the time of publication, the EISR and the press secretary of the president of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Peskov, did not answer Meduza's questions.