Is Kremlin Planning to Create a Ministry of Propaganda with Solovyev or Kiselyov in Charge?

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 14 – Russia desperately needs to create a ministry of propaganda, Artem Kiryanov, first deputy chairman of a commission of the Russian Social Chamber told a roundtable on the All-Russian Voting: Fakes as an Instrument for the Manipulation of Public Opinion last week (ria.ru/20200707/1573997527.html).

            Now, in part because of its unfortunate echo with a Nazi agency of the same name, the idea has sparked derision in the Federal Assembly about whether Russia needs such an institution given that even the communist authorities never established such an institution in Soviet times (regions.ru/news/2628578/).

                Senator Anatoly Lyskov says that the proposed name is most unfortunate because propaganda is about putting out information in support of one’s position rather than countering the efforts of others and because it violates Article 13 of the Russian Constitution which prescribes the creation of a single state ideology. 

            But those aren’t its only shortcomings, he suggests. On the one hand, it would require spending a great deal of money and thus put more burdens on the taxpayers; and on the other, the Russian government already has a large number of institutions working to counter fake news and propaganda put out by its opponents.

            LDPR Duma deputy Aleksandr Sherin says that the idea is entirely inappropriate at a time when the country has so many other problems it needs to address. “Apparently, when the powers can’t make the life of people better, whether by desire or inability, they need a ministry that will put into their heads the notion that they have already begun to live better.”

            But it hardly needs a new ministry to do that, he continues, given the government’s control of the media. If this idea has been coordinated with the Kremlin as is entirely possible, then the obvious candidates for Russian minister of propaganda would be Vladimir Solovyev or Dmitry Kiselyov.

            And KPRF deputy Valery Rashkin agrees. The Kremlin has all the propaganda outlets it needs and more so that its officials can “quietly steal, take bribes, participate in corrupt schemes and so on.”  It doesn’t need a new ministry for that. Or does it think it needs to reinforce its efforts to protect its corrupt policies and practices?

            Those who do the bidding of the powers that be already receive enormous amounts of money. Can it be that they need even more?  In the runup to the July 1 vote, the government’s “propaganda machine” already worked “600 percent for this. Such people work only for money, raising the possibility that such a ministry would give them even more.