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Putin's Russia and the West

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Putin's Russia and the West National Images in International Relations: Putin’s Russia and the West Valentina Feklyunina Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Politics Department of Politics Faculty of Law, Business and Social Sciences University of Glasgow December 2009 2 Abstract This study seeks to analyse the impact of the perceived, projected and self-images of a state on its foreign and domestic policies. It approaches this problem by exploring the evolution of international images of the Russian Federation in the ‘West’ in the years of Vladimir Putin’s presidency (2000-2008) and by examining attempts by the Russian authorities to improve them with the help of foreign propaganda. Russian political elites have always been very sensitive to perceptions of Russia in Western Europe and later in the United States of America. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia’s images in Western countries underwent significant transformation. Although relatively positive in the early 1990s, they became more negative towards the end of Boris Yel’tsin’s presidency before reaching their negative ‘peak’ during Putin’s second presidential term. The energetic efforts of the Russian authorities in the years of Putin’s presidency to promote a more favourable image of the country provide extremely rich material for analysis, which has largely not yet been utilised in the academic literature. To facilitate the analysis of Russia’s perceived images and the effectiveness of foreign propaganda, the thesis includes two case studies that examine the issues at question in greater detail in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Federal Republic of Germany. Based on extensive primary research (elite interviewing and discourse analysis), the study seeks to make a three-fold contribution to the academic literature. Firstly, it is the first systematic examination of Russian foreign propaganda in the post-Soviet period. By analysing Russia’s attempts to improve its image in the international arena, the thesis contributes to the literature in the field of International Political Communication that has already examined public diplomacy campaigns conducted by other, mainly Western, countries. Secondly, it aims to provide a deeper insight into the role of subjective, non-material factors in Russian foreign policy. Finally, it seeks to make a contribution to the social constructivist IR literature by presenting a theoretical analysis of the role of national images in international relations. 3 Table of Contents List of Tables 6 List of Figures 7 Acknowledgement 8 Author’s Declaration 9 List of Abbreviations 10 Chapter 1. The Revival of Russian Foreign Propaganda: An Introduction 12 1.1 Perceived, Projected and Self-Images in Academic Literature 13 1.1.1 Perceived Images: Psycho-Attitudinal Perspectives 13 1.1.2 Self-Images: Social Constructivist Interpretation s 19 1.1.3 Projected Images: Approaches in International Political Communication 22 1.1.4 Studies of National Images: the Russian Case 24 1.2 Theoretical Framework 27 1.2.1 Image of the State as a Unit of Analysis 28 1.2.2 Defining Foreign Propaganda 29 1.2.3 (Un)Successful Foreign Propaganda 31 1.3 Methodology of the Study 32 1.3.1 Research Methods: Advantages and Limitations 33 1.3.2 Choice of Case Studies 35 1.3.3 Overview of the Thesis 36 Chapter 2. Russia’s Negative Image: Views of the Problem 38 2.1 Russia’s Image in the West: From ‘Gorbymania’ to ‘Putinophobia’ 39 2.1.1 Russia’s Perceived Image among Western Elites and in the Mass Media 39 2.1.2 Russia’s Position in Country Rankings 44 2.1.3 Russia’s Perceived Image in Public Opinion of Western Countries 46 2.2 Russia’s Negative Image in Official Discourse 48 2.3 Academic and Expert Literature on IR and Foreign Policy Preferences 50 2.3.1 Theoretical Approaches in Russian IR Studies 51 2.3.2 Geopolitics in Russian IR 52 4 2.4 Image studies in Russia 54 2.4.1 Main Approaches to National Images 55 2.4.2 Reasons for Russia’s Negative Image in the West 57 2.4.3 Views on Foreign Propaganda 59 Chapter 3. Mechanism of Russian Foreign Propaganda, 2000 – 2008 62 3.1 Soviet Foreign Propaganda 62 3.1.1 Strategy of Soviet Foreign Propaganda 62 3.1.2 Structure of the Foreign Propaganda Machine 63 3.2 Strategy of Russian Propaganda in Putin’s Russia 67 3.3 Main Actors 71 3.3.1 Presidential Administration 71 3.3.2 Ministry of Foreign Affairs 74 3.3.3 Ministry of Culture and Mass Communications 77 3.3.4 Other Federal Ministries and Agencies 85 3.3.5 Western PR Companies 86 3.3.6 Grey or Black Propaganda? 89 Chapter 4. Projected Image: The Message to Western Audiences 93 4.1 In Search of Russia: Russia’s Self-Image in the Dominant Discourse 93 4.1.1 Vagueness of the Dominant Self-Image 95 4.1.2 Russia as a Great Power 96 4.1.3 Russia in the Post-Soviet Area 97 4.1.4 Russia as an Energy Superpower 99 4.2 Key Elements of the Projected Image 101 4.2.1 Russia as a Great Power 101 4.2.2 Russia as an Energy Superpower 104 4.2.3 Russia as ‘not an Empire’ 105 4.2.4 Historical Characteristics 107 4.3 Shifting the Focus: Russia’s Self-, Projected and Perceived Images 109 Chapter 5. Russia’s Images and Foreign Propaganda in the UK 113 5.1 British Images of Russia and the Russians: 16th – 20th Centuries 114 5.2 Images of Putin’s Russia in the UK, 2000 – 2008 118 5.3 Russian Propaganda in the UK 125 5.4 Assessing the Results 133 5 Chapter 6. Russia’s Images and Foreign Propaganda in Germany 137 6.1 German Images of Russia and the Russians: Historical Perspective 138 6.2 Images of Putin’s Russia in Germany, 2000-2008 142 6.3 Russian Propaganda in Germany 150 6.4 Assessing the Results 153 Chapter 7. The Effectiveness of Russian Foreign Propaganda 158 7.1 Discussing the Results: Russia’s Image as an Investment Destination 160 7.2 Discussing the Results: Components of Russia’s Image 163 7.3 Explaining the (In) Effectiveness of Foreign Propaganda 169 Chapter 8. Russia’s International Image at Home 178 8.1 Explaining the Failure of Russian Foreign Propaganda 178 8.1.1 Western Criticism in the Dominant Discourse 179 8.1.2 Western Criticism in the Public Discussion 184 8.2 Russia’s Negative Image in the West in Domestic Propaganda 186 8.2.1 Testing Patriotism of the Audience: InoSMI Project 187 8.2.2 The Use of Western Publications in the Russian Mass Media 189 8.3 Re-Emergence of Enemy Images 191 8.3.1 Preventing an ‘Orange Revolution’ Scenario 194 8.3.2 Promoting State Patriotism 199 8.3.3 Mobilising Public Support for the Foreign Policy Strategy 200 Chapter 9. Conclusion: National Images in International Relations 203 9.1 The Russian Case 204 9.2 Theoretical Implications 211 9.3 Limitations of the Study and Future Research 214 Appendix 1. A Note on Interviews 217 Bibliography 219 6 List of Tables Table 2.1. Russia’s ratings by Freedom House, 1991-2008 45 Table 2.2. Feelings towards Russia, 2002-2008 47 Table 4.1. Core elements of Russia’s perceived, projected and self-images 111 Table 7.1. Macroeconomic indicators for the Russian Federation, 2000-2008 159 Table 7.2. Russia’s rank in six dimensions of national competence, 2008 164 Table 7.3. The Anholt-GfK Roper Nation Brands Index 2008 165 Table 7.4. Dependence on import of Russian gas in EU member states, 2007 170 Table 8.1. Russian public opinion on hostility of foreign countries towards Russia, 1994-2008 195 Table 8.2. Assessment of President Putin’s achievements in Russian public opinion, 2000-2007 201 7 List of Figures Figure 2.1. Corruption Perceptions Index for the Russian Federation, 1996-2008 46 Figure 3.1. Soviet organisation structure for foreign propaganda and active measures 65 Figure 3.2. Structure of Russian foreign propaganda under Putin, 2007 72 Figure 5.1. Feelings towards Russia in public opinion in the UK, 2002-2008 133 Figure 5.2. Feelings towards countries, peoples and institutions in the UK, 2008 134 Figure 6.1. Feelings towards Russia in public opinion in Germany, 2002-2008 154 Figure 6.2. Feelings towards countries, peoples and institutions in Germany, 2008 155 Figure 7.1. Assessment by existing and potential investors of Russian economic policies and laws that encourage foreign investment, 2007 160 Figure 7.2. Assessment by existing and potential investors of Russia’s return on investment, as compared with emerging markets in general, 2007 161 Figure 7.3. Assessment by existing and potential investors of investment risks in Russia, as compared with emerging markets in general, 2007 162 Figure 7.4. Assessment by existing and potential investors of the impact of media coverage, 2007 162 Figure 7.5. Percentage of respondents who were concerned about the weakening of democracy in Russia, 2008 166 Figure 7.6. Percentage of respondents who were concerned about Russia’s behaviour towards its neighbours, 2008 167 Figure 7.7. Percentage of respondents who were concerned about Russia’s role as an energy provider, 2008 168 Figure 7.8. Picture of President Putin kissing a boy on his stomach, June 2006 174 Figure 7.9. Picture of President Putin fishing in the Yenisei River in Siberia, 2007 175 Figure 8.1. Article about Boris Berezovsky in The Times, 2007 190 Figure 8.2.
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