Simulated Power, Ceremonial Politics
Elements of Political Culture in Russia
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
Since the start of the Putin era, the state media in Russia has been staging political ceremonies, simulating the existence of powerful leaders and outlining threatening scenarios. These kinds of symbolic political productions are supposed to mobilise solidarity and forge the nation. But it cannot hide the fact that the men at the pinnacle of the Russian state are weak and irresponsible, that the elite is either officious or paralysed and that the population is petrified by fear.
(Osteuropa 3/2006, pp. 19–32)