The Kremlin School of Bloggers

Its good to see Evgeny Morozov blogging over at FP – we’ve always liked his work, as there should be more written about the impact of the blogosphere on politics in authoritarian states.  Earlier this week he had a great post up about the Kremlin’s attempts to tap into Russia’s growing class of young and creative internet users to help “make [the] Kremlin’s increasingly unappealing ideological package relevant to the younger generations.” 

No, the Nashi-inventor Vladislav Surkov was not behind this brilliant 21st century propaganda idea, but rather Gleb Pavlovsky.  Among many other strange government funded projects online, Morozov discovers a “school of bloggers” which teaches young supporters how to achieve the state’s goals online, and a series of lectures and user-submitted YouTube videos.  I include the mentioned video after the jump, which is sumptiously soundtracked with the latest hits from Pink Floyd and Scorpions.  Say what you will about the iron fists ruling Russia – they love their rock ‘n roll.

Apparently, more public lectures — probably from other Kremlin insiders — are to follow. Extensive “googling” for “Kremlin’s school of bloggers” reveals at least one interesting project — Polit-TV.ru — a series of ideological YouTube videos, all branded with a funny Kremlin-shaped logo, which aim to rally up support for Kremlin’s recent public campaigns (for example, here’s their video supporting Medvedev’s call to adhere to the historical truth and counter the foreign propaganda). What other projects should we expect from “Kremlin’s school of bloggers”?