Digoriya Platform Becoming a Putin Party School for Future Propagandists

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Feb. 3 – Five years ago, Moscow established a conference center at Digoria in North Ossetia where young political scientists could come together to listen to lectures by leading political scientists and exchange experiences with each other as part of their training for academic work.

            Then, about three years ago, the Digoria conferences changed form. They were no longer led by political scientists but by officials from Moscow, and those attending them were not focused on becoming university instructors but on becoming propagandists for the Putin regime, the Groza media portal reports (groza.media/posts/forum-digoriya).

            And while that outlet does not use the term, it is quite clear from its details about this center that it has become a kind of party school for propagandists much like the network of party schools Lenin established before 1917 and then extended after the revolution to train propagandists and party leaders.

            Because that is the case, the Digoriya project deserves close attention not only as a means of determining who is likely to be part of the Putinist propaganda team in the future but also of learning what themes the Kremlin considers the most important not just now but in the years and even decades ahead.