April 24, 2015
More than 10 years ago
More than a decade ago
Now this is Donald Trump USA
QUESTION:
There are two main things I’d like to discuss with you. First, the report The Menace of Unreality: How the Kremlin Weaponizes Information, Culture and Money, written by you and Michael Weiss, and published at the end of last year by The Interpreter and the Institute of Modern Russia. And second, your book Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia, which was recently translated into Estonian.
But allow me to start with something more general. During the Cold War we used to think that the Kremlin tended to oppose Western culture, bcut its current approach is somehow new and different. One might even say that the Kremlin is using Western values against itself. Or would that be too simplistic?
Answer, year 2015
April 24, 2015 ANSWER:
I think Russia is defined by its very fluid approach to ideology. They can jump to any message they need at any particular time. So they have their hands free. In Britain the main line of Russian propaganda goes through the financial elites, preaching the idea of business without politics, business above all else: “Let’s forget about sanctions and concentrate on business” is the message. At the same time, they go as far as financially backing or certainly boosting very leftist groups who are anti-capitalist – while also financing or giving a platform to right-wing groups. So they really don’t care, they just use any narrative they need in order to bolster their own position or just to keep people fighting amongst themselves. The overall strategy with the EU is two-fold. On one hand they encourage Berlin, Brussels and Paris to gang up against America: this is officially articulated by Putin, who says the EU is a potential ally against America. And on the other hand they do anything to undermine Brussels and play different countries off against each other, boosting anti-EU feeling in France and Britain. So basically it’s about building the EU up and making sure it’s very weak, while creating an ideal ally. It’s that sort of dizzying, shape-shifting use of ideology, which can be tactically very agile and very difficult to grasp. But it’s certainly very different from before.
More:
https://icds.ee/en/peter-pomerantsev-russia-uses-fluid-ideology-to-undermine-the-eu/