If a friend suddenly turned out to be not a friend... How the concept of "Russia is a victim of enemies" won in the country

In addition to the main dramatic outcome of the last year, some serious changes can be recorded in the socio-political life of Russia, which are becoming more and more obvious. One of them, according to publicist Dmitry Travin, was the Kremlin's final choice of the official ideology after two decades of uncertainty.:

"The choice was made between concepts that can be conditionally called "Russia is a country of great opportunities" and "Russia is a victim of countless enemies." The first concept was more attractive because it represented a positive ideology designed to inspire people to live, work, invest, develop their country and, ultimately, make it richer. Until 2007 - 2008 . it seems that no one even thought about the possibility of a different concept. Instead of countless enemies, we had friendly partners.

But when the economy went into a state of endless stagnation after the crisis (and then the standard of living began to fall), it became increasingly difficult to combine the propaganda of opportunities with reality. Moreover, not because it is difficult to manipulate the broad masses of the population (we know how to do this), but because the development of the country depends mainly on the elites, who are less amenable to propaganda (even if they are the first to demonstrate their conformism in words). However, until recently, it seems that the "land of opportunities" was not written off. And now everything has changed. Against the background of short-term rescue tasks, long-term development tasks no longer seem relevant. It is clear that some of the theses from the old clip will remain for a long time: China will help us, we will create an indestructible Eastern bloc, we will hit Western cunning with import substitution, etc. But, as the last year has shown, such slogans are no longer elements of the construction of the ideology in which great efforts and funds are really invested. It is more important to show the terrible face of the enemy than the strong shoulders of a friend.

For some time, the concept of "Russia is a victim of countless enemies" will work relatively effectively. Just do not measure its effectiveness by itself. It is designed for completely different segments of the population: for those who have not traveled abroad and do not even have a passport, for those who are completely indifferent to gaining knowledge about foreign life, and therefore are open to pseudo-knowledge..."