The Net Delusion - Evgeny Morozov [73]
With people like Rykov shaping the Kremlin’s online propaganda strategy, getting Russians to see through what they read on the Internet—even if there is no Internet censorship—won’t be easy. What’s worse, Rykov’s efforts are now being complemented by a growing cohort of younger Internet gurus, who appeared in part thanks to the hard work of various Kremlin-affiliated youth movements. (The creation of state-supported youth movements was the Kremlin’s way to minimize the threat of a potential color revolution, as pro-Western youth movements played an influential role in toppling the governments in Serbia, Georgia, and Ukraine.) Of those gurus, the most remarkable character is Maria Sergeyeva, a twenty-five-year-old member of Young Guard, one of the Kremlin’s pocket youth organizations.
Sergeyeva, a stunning blonde and a student of philosophy, writes a very popular personal blog in which she ruminates about the need to support the dying Russian auto industry, extols Catherine the Great, tells all immigrants “to “go home,” and occasionally posts photos from the coolest parties around town. “I was brought up to be a patriot from day one, “ she said in an interview with the Times of London. “My love for Russia came with my mother’s milk. I loved listening to my grand-parents’ heroic tales from the war. [Vladimir] Putin has given us stability and economic growth. It’s good that he’s hardline and tough.” Imagine a blogging Pat Buchanan trapped in the body of Paris Hilton: That’s Sergeyeva in a nutshell. Thanks to a series of pro-Kremlin short video clips and blog posts that went viral, Sergeyeva even gained notoriety in the international press, with the Daily Mail calling her “Putin’s Poster Girl” and the New York Daily News calling her “Russia’s Sarah Palin.”
The Kremlin badly needs people like Sergeyeva to reach younger audiences that are unreachable via the platforms the government already controls—radio, television, and newspapers. Bringing the young people back into the Kremlin’s sway—in part, by making the Kremlin look “cool”—is such a high priority that in 2009 Vladimir Putin, in his address to a national hip-hop convention, proclaimed that “break dancing, hip-hop, and graffiti” are more entertaining than “vodka, caviar and nesting dolls.” (The Kremlin’s attempts to co-opt the hip-hop movement are quite similar to their attempts to co-opt the blogosphere; unlike Russian rock and pop singers, rappers eagerly take on political subjects and sing of corruption, police brutality, and the Kremlin’s disregard for the poor.)
When needed, the Kremlin is also prepared to make alliances between the Internet, the youth movements, and religion. In 2009 Boris Yakemenko, the founder of the Kremlin’s Nashi youth movement, penned an op-ed advising the Russian Orthodox Church what to do about the Internet. He called for the creation of “Internet-missionaries ... who could argue and convince ... who could snatch out those who have been sucked into the World Wide Web and direct them to people who could direct them to the church.... The victory of the church online is essential in the struggle for the youth.” It took less than a year before the head of the Russian Orthodox Church heeded Yakemenko’s call and urged his followers to become active online.
Further amplifying the influence that the likes of Rykov and Sergeyeva have on the national discourse, the Kremlin is happy to turn them into national celebrities