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2.8.2 Other Actors
In addition, a number of organizations, often connected to the state, are involved
in soft power efforts. MID and Rossotrudnichestvo are responsible for a newly
created body, the Foundation for Supporting and Defending the Rights of
Compatriots Living Abroad, which was set up on 1 January 2012. The
Foundation’s website map for “monitoring events” notably labels the Baltic
states as the “near abroad” rather than Europe. 48
Rossotrudnichestvo’s 2012 annual review names the Russian Association for
International Cooperation as an important partner in exerting soft power. Another
actor in this sphere is Russkii vek, the Russian Century, an Internet site and
journal aimed at Russians living abroad, financed by the State Programme to
Support the Voluntary Return of Compatriots Living Abroad. The Gorchakov
Foundation of Public Diplomacy, the Andrei Pervozvannyi Foundation, the
International Council of Russian Compatriots, the Library Foundation Russkoe
zarubezhe (Russia Abroad), the Institute for Democracy and Cooperation and the
International Association for Compatriots’ Youth Organizations are also
involved in Russia’s soft power efforts – and this is by no means an exhaustive
list.
Needless to say, the mass media plays an important role in Russian soft power
activities. The MID clearly highlights the media – both printed and electronic –
as vital to getting the message across. 49 Many of the major news agencies and
television channels are directly or indirectly controlled by the state.
Rossotrudnichestvo cooperates with such media enterprises as ITAR-TASS,
Voice of Russia and RT (formerly Russia Today). Russkii mir cooperates with
some of these as well as the Russian television channel Kultura, among others.
According to Kudors, Russian television is quite popular in the Baltic states:
“With the help of satellite television, Russia’s extensive and flourishing popular
culture, comprising its growing film industry, pop music, modern literature and
dramatic art tradition, make Russia a rather attractive regional power”. 50
Russia’s soft power ambitions within the Council of Baltic Sea States (CBSS)
should also be mentioned. Within the Council’s framework of culture and
education, the Baltic youth camp, Artek, in Kaliningrad has received support,
and Sergei Lavrov hailed it as a “prominent event” during the Russian CBSS
48 Fond podderzhki, http://pravfond.ru/.
49 MID (2013): Plan deiatelnosti Ministerstva inostrannykh del Rossiiskoi Federatsii na period do
2018,
http://www.mid.ru/bdomp/nsosndoc.nsf/e2f289bea62097f9c325787a0034c255/a2fd6cef39f670694
4257ba600461abb!OpenDocument.
50 Kudors, op. cit. (2010): 4.
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