Putin Seeking to Reduce Nations to Folklore Alone

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 22 – In the summer months, festivals of various kinds are held throughout the Russian Federation with different ethnic and regional communities showing off their cultural traditions, actions that in almost every case enjoy the enthusiastic support of the Kremlin.

            Many are inclined to accept this arrangement as an indication that Moscow is supporting such groups; but in fact what is going on is something very different: the central authorities are boosting folklore  as part of a general effort to demobilize and strip political subjectivity from these groups.

            Under Putin, regional and ethnic groups have lost much of the political power they had had in the 1990s; and his support for these folkloric extravaganzas has served as a reliable cover as  he has moved against all efforts by these groups to exercise the authority they had earlier.

            (For some of the dozens of recent examples of this process, see nazaccent.ru/content/45737-v-irkutske-bolee-850-artistov-sorevnovalis-v-masterstve-ispolneniya-folklora/, mariuver.eu/2026/07/23/rasken-ozks-v-show/#more-86177, indigenous-russia.com/archives/49123 and arctic.ru/20260722/1620247.html.)

            As a propaganda tactic, what Putin has been doing has worked exceedingly well – many accept that the holding of folkloric events whose he is supporting minorities when in fact he is acting in exactly the opposite way – but there is a danger for him that this process may ultimately backfire.

            Not only do these folkloric events bring together people who may then ask more political questions than he intends, but their appearance reminds even those who aren’t prepared to act at present in defense of the interests of their nations or regions that these communities exist – and ultimately lead them to take action to protect and advance them.

            Thus like so many of Putin’s initiatives, folklorization is a strategy that promises short-term victories for the Kremlin leader but may end by leading to the rise of forces that will result in the defeat of what he is trying to do.