Russia’s state media has been working at full throttle for years to disseminate the principles of the government that permeates older generations who tend to consume public channels. But in order to persuade the youngest and at the same time go beyond the borders of the Eurasian country, it is necessary to resort to other more typical methods. XXI. centuryto spread your image to others putin bear riding manThis is something that few people think is true, but that has permeated the collective imagination and is widely used as something ironic or sarcastic by both pro-Russian and other more politically neutral profiles.
Twitter has now been renamed xIt is not very popular in Russia and is taking its place TelegramWhere all sorts of channels proliferate, where the military stands out. Instagram, on the other hand, is one of the most admired networks in the country, and both meme and funny content profiles, as well as ‘influencers’ have defended the Kremlin’s measures or encouraged criticism from Western leaders. One of the most famous campaigns was in the framework of the partial mobilization in September 2022; here many ‘influencers’ defended this measure saying only 1% of existing men are hired, comparing it to 1%. a bag of candy or a serving of chips.
In addition to the support of real people, the so-called “trawler farms“It’s something Russia is known to have used in the past, aimed at conditioning a particular country or social group. Evgeny PrigozhinThe head of the Wagner mercenaries, who died after his private jet blew up this week, was killed earlier this year in St. He publicly admitted that he had set up such trawler farms in St. Recalling the role of the “Putin cook” in the creation of such organizations, he argued, “they were created to protect the Russian information space from aggressive Western anti-Russian propaganda.”
Video games to strengthen speech
One of the weapons the Kremlin uses to spread its propaganda among the youth is video games. Although Russia is not a reference point in a market it dominates Japan And United States of Americahas tried to transfer its own paradigms to this sector. The most symbolic case computer game Syria warThe player controls the forces of the Syrian autocrat beshar Esad and supporting Russian troops fighting Syrian rebels and Islamic State jihadists. Although the game received good reviews from the expert press and Steam digital platform users due to its technical part, many reviews indicate that the game thinly disguised pro-Russian propaganda. The company that developed it, Cats Who Plays, originated in Moscow, and the Syrian War was their biggest production.
Some western media, such as ‘The New York Times’, pointed out that proselytizing goes beyond creating their own content, as Russian profiles use chats. conflict – a platform used by the online gaming community – and the use of online games to spread their message. “Propaganda is essentially Make Wagner and the Russian army look cool Clint Watts, Microsoft’s head of threat analysis, told the US newspaper:
Russia has also shown that it takes what’s going on in the digital worlds seriously; For example, in 2022, the authorities punished a person. 16 year old teenager Because he wanted to build a replica of the Moscow secret service building in Minecraft and then destroy it in the digital world with his friends. This attempt cost the young man a prison sentence, even though he had no intention of transferring it to the real world. 5 years in prison for a case of “terrorism”.