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Russia’s Image Declared Secret
// Counterpropaganda
Members of the Federation Council discussed Russia’s image abroad with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov yesterday. “The main conclusion,” Speaker of the Federation Council Sergey Mironov said after the closed meeting, was that “all citizens of Russia should think about improving the country’s image. Otherwise, others will do it in a very unpleasant way.”
A positive image abroad for Russia has been a topic of discussion for a number of years. Russian President Vladimir Putin gave new impetus to the process last summer. At a meeting of Russian ambassadors then, he stated that it was necessary to make an effort to form “an objective, unprejudiced image of our country.” That assignment has yet to be fulfilled. For example, a report submitted to the PACE on June 21 on this year by David Atkinson and Rudolf Bindig depicted Russia as a country in which “the democratic process has slowed down and even reversed itself.”
Yesterday, according to Mironov, he senators understood in their conversation with Minister Lavrov that “Russia’s image can only be changed through the efforts of all its citizens.” “We discussed various points of view and there were good suggestions,” Mironov said. “What there is now doesn’t suit anyone, because there is no unified center to work on propaganda and the creation of a true image of the country. Executive and legislative authority and public organizations could form some kind of unified coordinating center.” Mironov could not say where that center should be, but he noted that “there are already structures that, for example, monitor the Internet, where wild fact sometimes appear that are then repeated with great pleasure by certain media.”
An anonymous pamphlet handed out to journalists yesterday helps understand the planned counterpropaganda campaign being planned. According to that document, the authority of the country is being intentionally undermined, facts distorted and accomplishment belittled. “Certain political circles and media in the West have launched attacks on Russia in connection with it increasing independence, including financially and in international affairs,” the pamphlet reads. The enemies of Russia are particularly annoyed with “the renaissance of the country and its more energetic defense of its interests” and, therefore, “known circles have instituted an informational policy to discredit the foreign and, to a lesser extent, domestic policy of Russia.” Besides diplomats, the document names parliamentarians and the mass media as participants in the upcoming counterpropaganda campaign. All Russian media, not just the Voice of Russia radio station and the new Russia Today television channel, which broadcast to foreign audiences, will participate, since foreign journalists often use them as sources of anti-Russian information.
Journalists do not yet know what role is being prepared for them in the creation of the new image of Russia, since they were not allowed into yesterday’s meeting. Mironov explained that the decision to close the meeting to the press was because “you can’t disclose all the instruments that will be used to form the new image of Russia” because “they have learned well how to hurt us.” He spoke with pleasure of the new opportunities for parliamentarians, however. They include greater participation in economic forums, foreign visits by delegations, and invitations of representatives of foreign parliaments to Russia. When asked how much the campaign might cost, Mironov answered concisely that “The honor of the homeland is very dear.”
Natalia Gorodetskaya
All the Article in Russian as of July 13, 2005
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Photo: Ilya Pitalev
