Brian Whitmore of RFE/RL has a great new article called “Spinning the Kremlin“, which takes a look at political branding efforts of the Kremlin. The article paints a frightening picture of an increasingly sophisticated and polished state propaganda machine. Whitmore writes: “Gone are the presenters in boxy gray suits, the monotone cadences, and poor production value that characterized communist-era news broadcasts. Such an approach would fall flat in today’s Russia, where an increasing number of people are plugged into a global media culture. “In the society of the spectacle, your spectacle has to be spectacular,” says Andrew Wilson, author of Virtual Politics: Faking Democracy in the Post-Soviet World.” The report notes how the Kremlin’s communications efforts not only target the mass market through slick, high-budget television documentaries and convincing pro-government news programs, but also reach into social media, with government-backed bloggers (such as Pavel Danilin) who flood message boards and other content portals to “blackout” any promotional efforts by the opposition. The meta-narrative continues to grow more and more elaborate, say many of the sources in the article. The article also quotes Robert Amsterdam, and makes a kind mention of this blog. More excerpts after the jump.