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and Russo-focused assimilation, which can be deployed to achieve strategic
goals and shape public opinion. 134
Thus, Russia’s soft power sphere of cultural relations has been based on the
appeal of Soviet and Russian culture, and the financial and organizational
support it has devoted to the promotion of its culture abroad since 2000. Russia’s
soft power can be seen in both high and popular culture, in education and in the
media. The main vehicles for exporting and the main enablers for receiving
Russian culture are the language, Russian minorities, the Soviet legacy and
business networks. 135 In its foreign policy concept, Russia set a goal to promote a
positive image worthy of the high status of its culture, education, science,
sporting achievements and the level of civil societal development, as well as
participation in programmes of assistance to developing countries, fashioning
tools to improve its perception throughout the world, improving the application
of soft power and identifying the best forms of activities in this area that take
account of both international experience and national peculiarities and build on
mechanisms of interaction with civil society and experts. 136
Partnerships in culture, science, and education are the aspects that most directly
relate to the concept of soft power. Russia has set clear priorities in its National
Security Strategy 2020 to strengthen its national security in the cultural sphere by
“establishing government contracts for the creation of film and print production;
television, radio and Internet resources; and likewise by using Russia’s cultural
potential in the service of multilateral international cooperation”.
Russia’s foreign policy concept outlines its commitment to universal democratic
values, including human rights and freedoms. Its priorities envisage spreading
the use of the Russian language as an integral part of the world of culture and an
instrument of international and interethnic communication. Indisputably, the
concept of promoting interethnic communication is an important policy in
multicultural societies. However, a red line could be crossed in cultural spaces
where historical memory shapes relations between minorities.
In many ways, though, cultural contacts between Estonia and Russia are
intensive and thriving. The cultural ministries of the Republic of Estonia and the
Russian Federation created an important institutional framework back in 1992,
which was solidified through cooperation programmes.
Official cooperation developed further in 2008, when Estonian Minister of
Culture Laine Jänes (now Randjärv) and Russian Minister of Culture Aleksander
Sokolov signed a cooperation agreement in the areas of culture and mass
134 Ibid.
135 Grigas, Agnia (2012): Legacies, Coercion and Soft Power: Russian Influence in the Baltic States,
Briefing Paper, August (London: Chatham House).
136 Bugajski, Janusz (2013): “Russia’s Soft Power Wars”, The Ukrainian Week, February, available
at: http://ukrainianweek.com/World/71849
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