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Russia’s Soft Power Policy

In the latest statement of Russian foreign policy (12.02.2013), the desire to use “soft power” to achieve foreign policy goals and enhance the reputation of the country is outlined. Soft power is defined as a “complex set of tools for handling foreign policy that work through civil society, using methods and technologies that are informational and communicational, humanitarian and in other ways different from traditional diplomacy”.

The international term “soft power” was first used by the American political scientist Joseph Nye to denote the ability of a state to win over allies by using attractive non-tangible resources such as culture and ideology rather than coercive measures. The opposite of this is hard power, which denotes the use of physical strength, threats or payments of money. The use of soft power only attracts the attention of national security institutions if it forms a part of the influence operations of a foreign state, and the understanding of the Russian authorities of what soft power means is an example of that.

The All-Russian Society for Cultural Ties with Foreign Countries (VOKS) and the Union of Soviet Societies of Friendship and Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries (SSOD) were always seen as public organizations. But Roszarubezhtsentr [Russia Abroad Center], their successor, was part of the Foreign Ministry. The SSOD always was a public organization, although all such organizations in Soviet times were state-run, financed from one source, and subscribed to one ideology. Whereas in the Soviet times the diaspora used to be wary of contacts, now the situation is different.

In 2007, then-President Putin signed the Concept of Russia's Participation in International Development Assistance, outlining the expansion of the GOR development assistance program of debt relief for poor countries and grants to multilateral institutions to include aid delivery on a bilateral basis. Putin charged MFA and MinFin with jointly coordinating the assistance initiative. In 2008, President Medvedev ordered the creation of Rossotrudnichestvo (ROS) [Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States Affairs, Compatriota Residing Abroad, and International Humanitarian Cooperation] - the legal successor to Roszarubezhtsentr - within MFA and tasked it with the coordination of international humanitarian activities. (Note: While ROS has sought to redefine and possibly expand its role, to date its humanitarian activities have consisted of cultural and educational outreach programs. ROS does not undertake classic humanitarian or emergency relief activities, which remain in the purview of EMERCOM.

The national agency Rossotrudnichestvo , which was set up under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation in 2008, plays a key role in the use of soft power in Russian foreign policy. This agency is involved with CIS countries, compatriots living abroad, and international humanitarian co-operation. In the new foreign policy concept, Rossotrudnichestvo has, for the first time, been defined as a department that participates in developing and running the foreign policy of the Russian Federation in providing international development assistance, international humanitarian co-operation, and support for compatriots and in promoting the Russian language around the world. Rossotrudnichestvo’s tasks include developing Russian Science and Culture Centres abroad.

In the Russian argument, the protection of compatriots and the defence of the rights of Russian citizens is a standard justification for intervening in the internal affairs of other countries. The goal of the Fund for the Legal Protection and Support of Russian Federation Compatriots Living Abroad, founded in 2012 under the management of Igor Panyovkin, is to support and finance NGOs (non-governmental organisations) in foreign countries that support Russia and its point of view, and to train and guide them and to use them in Russia’s influence operations in international organisations and in the media.

Nathan D. Ginos noted "After the dismantling of Soviet government structures following the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991... the rapid rise in number and prominence of independent media outlets presented problems for a struggling government with little experience dealing with media outlets they did not directly control.... With the Putin administration dominated by former FSB officials throughout all government offices it should be hardly surprising that reflexive thought has become increasingly prominent. This lends support to the use of reflexive control as a means to alter the existing narrative of the Chechen conflict during the second Chechen war, and provides additional understanding to the reasons behind Russian actions as they relate to Georgia."

The importance of information and influence operations is evident in the decree signed on 09 December 2013 by the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, dissolving Russia’s largest news agency RIA Novosti, and replacing it with an international media company Rossiya Segodnya, which focuses on coverage of Russian politics and public life. The new media company is a combination of the former news agency RIA Novosti and the radiostation Golos Rossii. Dmitry Kiselyov, the founder of the Skovoroda Club, was appointed as the new director of the agency and Margarita Simonyan as the editor in editor-in-chief (simultaneously in RT). Dmitry Kiselyov, a presenter on a Russian TV channel Rossiya, is known primarily for his ferocious support for the Kremlin and his antagonism towards Western countries.

Kiselyov said that the creation of the new media entity was necessary to redress what he called an unfair international perception of Russia. “The creation of a fair attitude toward Russia as an important country with good intentions – this is the mission of the new structure that I will be heading up,” he said in December 2013.

Russian state news agency RIA Novosti employees up to and including the agency's editor-in-chief were stunned on December 9 by a presidential decree liquidating RIA Novosti, Russia's largest state-run news agency. Under the decree, RIA and state radio Voice of Russia are to be disbanded and their remaining structures merged into a replacement organization named Rossiya Segodnya, which is Russian for "Russia Today." The decision to abolish RIA Novosti was widely interpreted as another in a series of shifts in Russia's news landscape pointing toward a tightening of state control in the already heavily regulated media sector. Staff at RIA Novosti's Moscow-based English-language desk was asked to decide whether they wanted to work at Rossiya Segodnya or accept compensation packages. The bulk of the writers and editors for the English-language service have opted for the latter option.

Dmitry Kiselyov, head of the Russian government-owned news agency, was called the ‘‘Kremlin’s New Chief Propagandist’’ by the Moscow Times. Dmitry Kiselyov once posed in front of a mushroom cloud on the main Russian state-controlled television and warned that Russia is the only country in the world capable of turning the US into “radioactive dust.” Kiselyov is known for promoting Putin’s policies and denigrate the West. He once said in his TV-show “[Gays] should be prohibited from donating blood, sperm, … And their hearts, in case they die in a car accident, should be buried or burned as unfit for extending anyone’s life.” He has called opposition activist and blogger Alexei Navalny for a “fifth columnist.”

Kiselyov is best known as a presenter on a weekly Sunday evening news commentary show, and in 2013 made international headlines after anti-gay remarks he had made during a television debate surfaced online. His presentation style and news commentary is notable for its often intentionally provocative and doggedly anti-Western slant. Responding to a CNN feature lightheartedly pouring scorn on what the broadcaster described as an unsightly World War II monument in Belarus, Kiselyov remarked that the Iwo Jima Memorial looked like a group of gay men engaged in the act of coitus.

Kiselyov was a central figure of the government propaganda supporting the deployment of Russian forces in Ukraine. Some European countries wanted to include as a Ukkraine sanctions target Dmitry K. Kiselyov, but his name was dropped amid objections from Finland and others that journalists should not be singled out, even those in state-controlled organizations. On 17 March 2014, the EU Council adopted Regulation (EU) No 269/2014. In view of the gravity of the situation, the Council considered that additional persons should be added to the list of natural and legal persons, entities and bodies subject to restrictive measures, and Kiselyov was among them.

In the interview with Izvestia, Dmitry Kiselyov said that to his memory this is the first time international sanctions have been imposed on a journalist. Kiselyov said “I think we have swapped roles. Russia is the one promoting freedom of speech, not the West. A great tectonic, civilizational shift has occurred. In Russia, you can say whatever you want: there is a range of TV channels, the Internet is not blocked, and there are newspapers and radio stations to suit every taste.”

The Norwegian Helsinki Committee stated “It is wrong to consider this as journalism. Kisleyovs role as head of Russia Today, strongly supported by the Russian Government, gives him a unique platform in Russian media. To put the situation in a different light, we will add that Russian journalists who have criticized Putin for his invasion have already been fined. That is a violation of the freedom of expression.”

Kiselyov made a distinction in 1999 between television journalists and “agitators” according to a December 2013 profile of Kiselyov in the Economist. “People will, of course, swallow anything. But if we keep lowering the bar and dropping morals we will, one day, find ourselves splashing in the dirt like pigs and eating each other, along with this dirt, and then we would not be able to sink any lower,” the weekly cited him as saying.

The Kremlin invests around €100 million (about $150 million) a year in Russian media abroad in order to influence public opinion in the West. By 2014 Kremlin foreign broadcaster RT, formerly known as Russia Today, had successfully established itself in the nine years since its creation, recently surpassing even CNN when it comes to clips viewed on YouTube. With close to 1.2 billion views, the BBC is the only media outlet ahead of RT. In Britain, RT has more viewers than the Europe-wide news station Euronews and in some major US cities, the channel is the most-viewed of all foreign broadcasters. RT's 2,500 employees report and broadcast in Russian, English, Spanish and Arabic with German to be added soon.

In November 2013 Gazprom-Media, which is closely linked to state-run gas giant Gazprom, bought control of Russian media company Profmedia from Russian billionaire Vladimir Potanin. In October, Mikhail Lesin, a former Kremlin advisor, was appointed to head Gazprom-Media.

On 7 November 2015 the 57-year-old Mikhail Lesin, a former Russian Cabinet minister and a founder of the international media company RT, originally known as Russia Today, was found dead in a hotel room in Washington's Dupont Circle area. RT's English-language service said Lesin died of a heart attack. Lesin was Russian minister for the mass media, television and mass communications in a period from July 1999 to February 2004. He left his post after the resignation of the Mikhail Kasyanov government and disbandment of the ministry. He was presidential media adviser from 2004 to 2009.

In October 2013-December 2014, he was director general and chairman of the board of Gazprom-Media Holding. The appointment of Lesin, which was widely reported in advance of the official announcement, signals a return to the heart of Russia’s official media establishment for a figure who played a key role in some of the media battles of the 1990s and early 2000s, including Gazprom’s takeover of privately owned NTV television channel, which put a network highly critical of the Kremlin firmly under state control. As an advisor to President Vladimir Putin between 2004 and 2008, Lesin was reportedly the architect of the Kremlin-funded English-language channel Russia Today, now known as RT.

The largest media holding in Russia, Gazprom-Media’s most prominent assets are radio stations Ekho Moskvy and Citi-FM, television channels NTV and TNT, satellite operator NTV+, online video site Rutube and publishing house Sem Dnei. The company is owned by Gazprombank, the financial arm of state-owned gas giant Gazprom. Gazprombank is also closely linked through its management structure to Bank Rossiya, which is owned by Yury Kovalchuk, reportedly a close personal acquaintance of Putin.

Mikhail Lesin stepped down as head of major state-controlled media holding Gazprom-Media, the company saidin December 2014. Gazprom-Media, whose holdings include independent radio station Ekho Moskvy, said Lesin's resignation was due to family reasons. US federal authorities planned to investigate Lesin for possible violations of anti-money-laundering laws during his purchase of expensive California real estate.

Russia's lower house of parliament on 27 January 2015 passed amendments that could return advertising to Russian pay-to-view channels, a move that analysts said points to the waning influence of recently retired state media boss Mikhail Lesin. If approved by the upper house and President Vladimir Putin, the bill will amend a controversial decision last year that banned advertising on cable and satellite television channels, allowing them to sell ad space as long as 75 percent of their programming is Russian. The heads of several Russian channels argued in a letter to the government that half of Russia's approximately 300 cable television stations could fail without their advertising revenues.

Russian programming is defined as material made by firms registered in Russia and broadcast either in Russian or one of Russia's other national languages. Programs created by foreign companies but commissioned by Russian ones qualify. Programs with more than half of their expenses covered by foreign investors do not.

Russian state media often act as cheerleaders for disunity and dysfunction within the European Union and tout Europe’s supposed moral decline and failure to protect traditional values, and project attitudes that dovetailed with supporters of Britain leaving the European Union. Numerous state TV messages portrayed Europe as, unlike Russia, falling apart morally, socially and being overrun by criminal migrants because of a failure of states to uphold their independence and sovereignty.