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• techno-economic backwardness;
• the imperfection of the legal support of information activities of the state, including the lack of concept papers (e.g.
Concept of information policy);
• the use of government propaganda way of maintaining
communications with society;
• maintenance and preservation of the internal positive
image of the Russian state, individual state institutions, directions of state policies for citizens of the Russian Federation (we
are talking about elements of state PR).
Moreover, we note that the modern information policy
of Russia in relation to international structures is not focused
on maintaining a positive image of the country, but rather on
issues of ensuring information security and counteracting neg-
ative information impact and information wars (this was discussed in the previous chapter).
The conservatism characteristic of the Russian political system implies broad powers of state bodies, including in relation
to the information sphere. In accordance with Russian political
traditions, individual production and consumption of information resources is limited, and state control is strengthened.
The use of information resources in order to protect national
sovereignty in Russia is no less important, but of a completely
different nature than in the US and Europe, which is why political contradictions appear. In the spring of 2018, after the
refusal of the Telegram network to provide encryption keys to
state security agencies, Roskomnadzor decided to block the Internet addresses through which the social network was served.
As a result of the actions of Roskomnadzor, about 20 million
Internet addresses were blocked, including those serving such
popular services as Amazon, Google, etc. This conflict confirms
the thesis about the excessive interference of Russian state
structures in the regulation of information interaction. Another feature of modern Russian state information policy is the
close cooperation of a number of Russian sites with government
agencies (for example, VKontakte).
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So, drawing conclusions about the nature of the relationship between the Russian state and its main counterparties at
the present stage, we again note the nationalization of the information space, the narrowing of the number of non-state media, as well as the small role of civil society, the business sector and the expert community independent of the state in the
formation of information policy. In recent years, the Russian
authorities have taken efforts to tighten information policy.
As a result of the adopted set of measures, there is a noticeable
limitation of the interaction of Russian citizens with the outside world. Such an information policy has a negative impact on
maintaining the image of Russia.
Directions for building and maintaining
a positive image of Russia
One of the key directions of the state information policy of any state is a strategy for the formation, promotion and
maintenance of an attractive image of the country both for the
domestic audience and for the foreign community, represented
by a variety of other countries, international structures, TNCs.
In the most general form, the image of the country can be interpreted as a set of emotional and traditional ideas arising from
the comparison of all characteristics of the country, its own expe-
1
rience and rumors affecting the creation of a particular image
The question of the image’ nature is debatable. Thus, there are
authoritative opinions regarding the natural origin of the country’s image. This position is supported by Simon Anholt
2
. On the
.
1
This definition is proposed by the World Tourism Organization.
2
Simon Anholt is an independent policy adviser; member of the
European Cultural Parliament. Works with heads of state, government
and administration, as well as cities and regions around the world to
develop and implement strategies to expand and improve the effectiveness
of political, economic and cultural interaction between countries. As Vice
Chairman of the Council for Public Diplomacy at the British Foreign
Office (2000–2009), he advised more than 50 Heads of State, Government
82
contrary, we believe that the image is an artificial construction,
which is the result of the purposeful activity of various actors. In
this case, the state builds its own institutional design of the bodies responsible for the image policy, develops its regulatory foundations. In addition, states can seek help and support in changing the country’s image from specialized international agencies
working in the field of rebranding. Examples are structures such
as Ketchum Inc., FutureBrand
1
. It is known that in 2016 Russia hired Ketchum to improve the country’s reputation in the
West, and in the period from 2006 to 2015 Ketchum represented
the Russian Federation in the US and Europe
2
at events such as
the G20 summit, the World Economic Forum and the 2014 Sochi
3
Olympics, in the media and in the media
. The contract between
the Russian and Ketchum ended in March 2015.
The unconditional factors influencing the image of the state
are the standard of living, the type of political regime, and
the specifics of the foreign policy pursued. Thus, the state can
and Administration, numerous heads of cities and regions, as well as
organizations such as the World Bank, NATO, UN, IOC, European
Union, etc. The goal is to develop and implement strategies to improve
the efficiency of economic, political and cultural relations with other
countries. Anholt developed the concept of a national brand in 1996 and
today is a recognized expert in this field. He is the founder and publisher
of the Anholt-GfK Roper Nation Brands Index™, Anholt-GfK Roper
City Brands Index™ and Anholt State Brands Index™. Author and coauthor of a number of publications, among which his bestseller “Another
One Bites The Grass” plays a special role. He is editor of the quarterly
magazine and editor of the quarterly magazine Place Branding and Public
Diplomacy.
1
https://www.futurebrand.com/what-we-do/country-branding
(accessed 01.04.2022).
2
Arun Sudhaman (March 13, 2015). “Clue to Ketchum’s relationship
with Russia”. Holmes report. Retrieved May 24, 2016.
3
Dennis Lynch (March 11, 2015). “Russia, Ketchum End
Controversial Nine-Year Public Relations Partnership”. International
Business Times. Retrieved 24 May 2016. Mikhail Volkov (June 19, 2013).
“Ketchum launches thinkRUSSIA platform on sidelines of St. Petersburg
Economic Forum”. Russia Beyond the Headlines. Retrieved 24 May 2016.
83
make active targeted efforts to create a positive image in the
information space through pro-state global media, diplomacy,
but in practice implement unpopular measures and strategies.
In this case, any image and branding campaigns are doomed to
failure. At the same time, it seems that the best way to verify
(test in practice) how realistic it is to live in a particular state
is to visit this country. So, for example, during the 2018 FIFA
World Cup in Russia, tourists from many countries were surprised to find that the Russian Federation is a completely comfortable and safe country to stay in.
It seems that the image state policy pursues two goals. The
first is related to maintaining the legitimacy of power within
the country. And this direction is aimed at maintaining the in-
ternal image of the state. The second direction solves the problem of creating favorable conditions for the country in the international arena. Thus, this direction is connected with the
so-called external image of the state.
Despite the fact that the internal and external images are
formed in relation to the same state, their nature and specificity are different and may even be opposite.
Thus, an internal image is formed on the basis of a person’s
recognition of his belonging to a certain community, which
a person identifies with the concept of WE. The external image
is the sum of ideas about how and where THEY live.
An internal image of the state is a system of citizens’ ideas about their country, its place in the world, the peculiarities
of its political, economic, social, cultural and historical development. The idea of every citizen about his country is multi-faceted, because the society in which we live is complex. The
internal image is mobile, because the perception of the state,
the attitude to the country is influenced not only by long-term
factors of socialization, but also by specific processes. Under
the influence of certain events, citizens may become aggravated, for example, a sense of pride for their country.
For example, the image of Russia in the minds of Russians
is formed as an image of “their own”, which is different from
84
“others” and which is opposed by “others”. “Their” state is different in that it is associated with the individual environment,
there is a sense of solemnity, identity.
The external image of the state is constructed on the basis
of the assessment by the population of other countries of the
risks and threats emanating from this state. Moreover, the extreme estimates of the imaginary“scale” can be such connotations as “friend” and “enemy”.
Without going into theoretical disputes about what an image is, what are the approaches to its understanding, within the
framework of this textbook, we support the above definition
of this term and propose the following image structure.
Political and geographical image identifies the state with
some part of the world and in a certain environment. So, the
USSR was represented as one sixth part of land, Russia – as
Eastern Europe or Eurasia, USA – New world, European countries – Western Europe or the Old world, Switzerland – the
Pearl of the Alps, Finland – Suomi, Italy – the Apennines, etc.
• Natural resources identify the state with some inherent
characters of nature, the animals (Russia is a country of snow
and frost, country of bears).
• Civilizational and cultural image identify the state and
its people with cultural and historical heritage of world importance (Russia – the Kremlin, associations with Russian ballet,
Russian literature, etc.).
• Socio-mental image identifies the most typical socio-psychological characteristics. So, the Germans are precise and accurate; the Americans are busily; Russians are dreamy and imaginative; Italians are romantic.
• National value identifies the state and its people with
historical values, in the USA it is freedom and independence;
in Russia – the justice and interests of all Nations; Europe –
cradle of modern civilization.
• Production and economic image identifies the state with
some economic niche in the global economic division (Russia –
space, aircraft building, oil and gas).
85
It should be noted that not all elements of the image can
simultaneously be an object for promotion. So, for example,
modern Russian or American foreign policy is debatable, and
it seems inappropriate to invest resources in the development
of these strategies. However, such elements of the structure
of the image of the Russian state as the сivilizational and cultural image are always highly valued by representatives of the
international community. In this sense, the further development of the cultural direction can be considered as a priority
for modern Russia.
Features and main stages of a positive
image of Russia’s formation
The issue of forming and maintaining an image for international structures, global civil society, and other countries is the
most problematic place in Russian state policy. Perhaps, Russia
is one of the few countries, the attitude towards which is am-
1
biguous and changeable
in “The Anholt-GfK Roper Nation Brands Index”, the average
perception of Russia in the world is very complex, from high
places in the top ten in those Index rankings related to culture
and heritage, to a more significant number of low places in areas
such as “public administration” and “population”. The polarization of perception of Russia depends on such factors as historical
heritage (Poland traditionally perceives Russia negatively), economic prospects for investment. Turkey, for example, perceives
Russia depending on geopolitical realities and has an image from
positive to negative in different periods of modern history
. Referring to Anholt, since the 2010s
2
.
1
Only China, Japan and the United Arab Emirates generate even more
controversy from the rest of the world (and the only reason Japan is in the top
four is that it received an average of 49th from both China and South Korea)
, all other countries rate it much more favorably, usually in the top twenty).
2
Международный имидж России. Почему он важен. РИА новости от 15.09.2013. https://ria.ru/20130915/963257442.html (accessed
31.03.2022).
86
Taking into account the fact that any state policy must
have an institutionalized subject and ideological conceptual
foundations, this direction was practically absent and is currently absent in the Russian Federation. Thus, the concept or
strategy for working with the image is still not accepted. And
taking into account modern realities, information wars with
Russia, especially after Crimea became part of the Russian Federation and the start of a military operation in Ukraine in February 2022, the Russian elite generally denies the expediency of holding any image events in the context of information
1
wars
.
It should be noted that in the first post-Soviet decade, the
political elite did not deal with the image of Russia due to the
problems of Russian statehood, the weakness of the federal
Center, the crisis of the state administration system, etc. Up to
2000 the problem of Russia’s image’ formation was not a key
issue on the agenda for the Russian authorities. However, with
the coming to power of the new President V. Putin in 2000, the
task of image formation was included in Russia’s Foreign Policy Doctrine of the Russian Federation. Thus, since 2000 we
can talk about the initial stage of the image state policy. So, at
the end of 2003 the Kremlin creates a state-run news Agency
RIA “Novosti” as a tool for improving image, in 2004 Moscow
has created a discussion club “Valdai”, where annually foreign experts and journalists invited by the Kremlin are gathered, in 2005 the first Russian information channel broadcasting around the world in foreign languages – Russia Today was
launched.
Since mid-2000, a draft of a program on the image was prepared. The creation of a special office or Institute that would
deal with issues of improving Russia’s image abroad were
repeatedly discussed. In 2014 Sputnik (news agency, news
1
Песков объяснил отказ Кремля от услуг Ketchum. https://www.
gazeta.ru/politics/news/2015/03/12/n_7004733.shtm от 12.03.2015
(accessed 14.03.2022).
87
website platform and radio broadcast service established by
the Russian government-owned news agency Rossiya Segodnya) was launched.
In the second half of the 2010s, sports events and campaigns
played an important role in creating a positive image of Russia.
So, holding the 2018 FIFA World Cup, Sochi 2014 Olympics
improved the image. Moreover, this direction was implemented in the conditions of a negative perception of Russia after the
entry of Crimea into the Russian Federation.
1
In general, according to experts
, promising areas for main-
taining a positive image of Russia are:
• the use of political platforms and forums (international
and Russian);
• Russia’s participation in international governmental or-
ganizations;
• working with the Western media;
• the launch of the Russian information media for external
customers;
• the use of sports, social and cultural events;
• measures to improve the investment climate and creating
and maintaining a positive investment image of Russia in foreign States.
The turning point in Russia’s relations with the Western
world really was 2014, when Russia adopted Crimea (annexed
it in accordance with the Western approach), then the military
operation by Russian troops in Syria and the start of the operation in February 2022 in Ukraine almost completely destroyed
relations with Western countries and structures. As a result,
Russia’s image appears to be hopeless.
1
See for example: Имидж России: стратегия, тактика, технологии : материалы науч. конф. 26 ноября 2013 / под ред. И.А. Василенко ; Московский гос. ун-т им. М.В. Ломоносова. – Пушкино : Центр
стратегической конъюнктуры, 2014. – 104 с. Сулакшин С.С., ХвыляОлинтер Н.А. Отношение к России в мире // Труды Центра научной
политической мысли и идеологии, январь 2015. – М. : Наука и политика, 2015. – Вып. 8. – 28 с.
88
• The world expert community also contributes to the formation of a negative image of Russia. Let’s take the current
ratings of countries as an example.
• World press freedom index 2014–2015 Russia ranked
152nd out of 180; 150th in 2021
1
.
• The global peace index countries in the world 2015 152nd
place out of 162; 154th in 2021 out of 1632.
• Corruption perception index: 119th out of 168; 136th out
of 180 in 20213.
• “Index of good countries” (analyzes the countries of the
world by the degree of their global contribution) in 2014, Russia ranked 95th out of 125; 47th (!) out of 149 in 20214.
• 2013 world reputation ranking (Country RepTrak): 46th
out of 505.
• The democracy index of the countries of the world: 122nd
place out of 167; 124th place out of 167 in 20216.
• Ranking on the state of political and civil liberties in the
world (Freedom in the World): 167th place out of 195. In 2022,
Russia is still a not free country with an index of 19 out of 100
possible. For comparison, the index of Sweden is 100, Denmark
is 977.
In general, summing up the current state of the image
state policy, it should be noted that today in Russia there is
no policy or strategy to maintain the image of a country. The
Russian political elite, as noted earlier, has given up on undertaking any sort of specialized effort due to Russia’s actu-
1
https://rsf.org/en/ranking/2021 (accessed 14.03.2022).
2
https://www.visionofhumanity.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/
GPI-2021-web-1.pdf (accessed 14.03.2022).
3
https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2021/index/rus (accessed
03.04.2022).
4
https://index.goodcountry.org/ (accessed 03.04.2022).
5
https://www.reptrak.com/ (accessed 03.04.2022).
6
https://www.jagranjosh.com/general-knowledge/democracy-
index-2021-1644567197-1 (accessed 03.04.2022).
7
https://freedomhouse.org/explore-the-map?type=fiw&year=2022
(accessed 03.04.2022).
89
al failures in information wars. With such an interpretation
of the problem, the authorities focused all their efforts on
combating the negative information impact, information security and countering cyber threats. However, this position
seems to be uncontroversial and incomplete. As alternatives,
it is still necessary to implement at least a targeted image policy through scientific, cultural, public diplomacy in relation
to those international players who have not turned away from
Russia.
Lecture Review Questions
1. What are the features of the state information policy?
2. What are the main models of information policy and mod-
els of relations between the state and the media?
3. What are the main stages in the development of Russian
information policy?
4. What challenges does modern Russia face in the imple-
mentation of information policy?
5. What are the prospects for promoting a positive external
image of Russia in the global arena?
Sources
Siebert, F. Four theories of the press: The Authoritarian,
Libertarian, Social Responsibility, and Soviet Communist
Concepts of what the Press Should be and Do [Text] / F. Siebert. W. Schramm. – Illinois : University of Illinois Press,
1956.
Bodrunova, S.S. Information disorder practices in/by contemporary Russia [Text] / S.S. Bodrunova // The Routledge
Companion to Media Disinformation and Populism. Routledge. – London, 2021.
Budarin, Y.S. Digital Cooperation in the Russian Federation [Text] / Y.S. Budarin, D.K. Chirkov, F.B. Magomedov //
Сooperation and Sustainable Development. – 2022. Vol. 245. –
P. 27–38.
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