The West Is Failing To Penetrate The Russian Information Space: How We Got Here And What To Do About It

As we watch the horrors unfolding in Ukraine, we cannot fathom the Russian people’s imperviousness to what’s being done in their name. By this time, a massive outcry of shame or outrage should be emanating palpably from across the Russian Federation, large enough at least to curb the Kremlin’s policies. No doubt, the police state’s iron fist accounts for some of the quiescence: the widespread arrest of protesters, the sowing of fear via public assassination of dissidents over the years, relentless propaganda and the like have had the desired effect. But, ask any group of experts and they will tell you the problem goes deeper, goes in fact to the hearts and minds of the Russian public. It’s not at all clear that Putin’s personal popularity has taken a huge blow. The relatively respected Levada opinion pollsters peg his approval rating still above 80%. Most recent estimates of the numbers fleeing abroad hovers around 700,000 or so, pretty insignificant in relation to the total population. Is it merely that Russians are simply not getting the information that would alter their minds, or do they inhabit such a parallel universe that they’re immune?

Times have certainly changed since the late Cold War era when, behind the Iron Curtain, news from the West was considered precious, more reliable (and more sane) than the Kremlin’s; sources such as the BBC Russian Service and Radio Free Europe were revered as fountains of truth. According to Prof Thomas Graham, veteran Russia expert at Yale University, Soviet citizens “couldn’t trust official outlets even for their own local news – Chernobyl is just one example – so they learned to trust our alternatives.” But it went beyond hard news. The West teemed with entertainment, glamor, fashion, sport and rock music in contrast to the Kremlin’s monolithically dull broadcasting. The Soviets were losing the soft power struggle just as drastically, through which counter-information flowed passively yet effectively.