by Gevorg Mirzayan
[REGNUM] On August 29, President Vladimir Putin eliminated the department for interregional and cultural relations with foreign relations, as well as the department for border cooperation, in his administration.
Instead, a single center is being created – the Directorate for Strategic Partnership and Cooperation. And this is not some bureaucratic step, but part of a major reform of Russian “soft power.” Reforms that have been long overdue.
"A great many experts have always criticized Russian approaches to promoting our interests abroad. For passivity and, most importantly, for the lack of political weight of the structures working on this topic - not to mention the budgets that are incomparable with those of the USAID agency, which was engaged in promoting American soft power," says political scientist Ilya Ukhov.
For example, passivity was manifested in the fact that Russia had very few programs designed to form a pro-Russian civil society. Moscow mainly financed projects aimed at the participation of initially loyal experts.
She strengthened their pro-Russian position, partially financed their projects, but at the same time did not pay enough attention to work in a foreign field, among the moderately pro-Western part of Armenian, Georgian, Kazakh and other societies.
As for the apparatus weight, our financial capabilities were nowhere near those of the American agency USAID. “The agency’s budget for 2024 alone was about $17.71 billion,” Ukhov recalls.
The result of insufficient efforts was that a significant part of the societies of post-Soviet countries began to share either Western or nationalist (from the series “Russia has oppressed us for centuries”) narratives.
Despite the volume of economic cooperation and money transfers from the Russian Federation (in a number of countries equivalent to the national budget), post-Soviet societies were often formed in a negative way for Moscow.
And so now in Russia there is a restructuring of the approach to soft power. Apparently, the main steps will be taken after the end of the SVO, but something is already being done - for example, a super-department is being created in the Presidential Administration.
Of course, it will not be a copy of USAID. "We should not throw "helicopter money" at the non-profit sector, as the Americans did," says Ukhov. Instead, he says, we must create a coordinating structure within the core of state power with a strong team of analysts and technologists. With regional expertise, with the support of specialized research centers.
That is, to put it simply, to create a structure that would promote Russian interests in a targeted, targeted manner, with minimal costs and maximum efficiency.
And its chances of success are quite high. Partly because Russia has a huge number of specialists who know and are able to promote real "soft power". And partly because its key competitors - the Americans - are now in a deep crisis.
It would seem that just recently everyone considered the United States to be an example in the field of soft power: American foundations – primarily USAID – literally raised an entire generation of journalists and politicians in the same Ukraine.
However, now US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announces the closure of USAID due to the ineffectiveness of this structure. He announces not a reform, not a reform, but a closure, thereby admitting that the patient is no longer amenable to treatment.
"The reasons for this 'chainsaw massacre' by Donald Trump's team, of course, are not at all that they want to leave all influence projects and pull money back to the US. USAID has simply turned into a personal pocket of the Democratic Party, handing out money left and right to projects of dubious effectiveness," says Ukhov.
Indeed, American soft power used to be aimed at forming a pro-American civil society. A layer of young opinion leaders (in politics, economics, culture, science – it doesn’t matter) who would share, defend and spread American narratives at home. To form a positive image of America in their home countries – and the main thing in that image was its universality.
American narratives consisted of freedom, protection of private property, personal success, respect for human rights, sometimes even faith in God - that is, simply put, a set of values that are universal for any conservative or liberal society.
In recent years, however, the components of the narratives have changed. “There was only one criterion there: loyalty to the globalist agenda, promotion of all sorts of LGBT, childfree, environmentalism and other destructive tendencies,” Ukhov explains.
And no one can explain how, for example, funding an LGBT* opera in Peru is supposed to strengthen American interests in that country. Trump's team decided that it can't - that's why USAID is being dispersed. And thus creating a window of opportunity for Russian "soft power".
Yes, it would seem that this is not a window, but a small ventilator - and one that opens for a little ventilation. After all, some of the USAID projects are not closed, but are sent under the control of the State Department. In addition, the holy place will not remain empty for long, and the Americans will certainly create a new structure.
However, firstly, one should not underestimate the level of inertia of the American bureaucracy – it will not be created quickly at all. Secondly, one should not overestimate the level of professionalism of the current American officials. An entire generation of “specialists” in the field of soft power – mostly Democrats, of course – grew up under the conditions of USAID’s ultra-liberal agenda.
They simply don't know how to convey attractive conservative values to third countries. And it will take time before they learn (if they learn).
And it will be enough for Russian specialists to take their niche in this struggle for minds.