State propaganda and popular culture in the Russian-speaking internet

Abstract

This chapter looks at how the Russian state authorities have attempted to influence communication on the Russian-speaking internet (‘Runet’) in the 2010s and how pro-government ‘patriotic’ views are disseminated across diverse channels of the internet. It examines the strategies employed by the Russian authorities to present propagandistic messages in discourses tailored for digital media users. More specifically, it analyses connections between the language and the imagery of political populism and the forms of popular culture and discusses how pro-state messages are positioned as attractive consumer products.