Humanitarian exports grow

Yekaterina Tesemnikova. Exclusively to VK

The problem of the country’s image improvement has been dealt by the Russian authorities for many years, but it is discussed by society only in cases of scandals. The sentence of the members of Pussy Riot provoked a wide reaction (many famous people stood up for the punk-group – Madonna, Julian Assange, Bjork, Sting, Peter Gabriel, and many Russian artists). It became obvious that the channel Russia Today, which was founded in 2005 aimed at presenting Moscow’s position, could not deal with it alone. Rossotrudnishestvo, which was established four years ago, has to become one of key instruments of “soft power”.

Sociologists say that the attitude to Russia is different in various regions of the world. A huge role is played by coverage of the Russian agenda by the international mass media. A more positive image of Russia is typical for the CIS states, while the West treats Russia in a more negative way. Marketing experts add that Russia can be interesting for the world not only with its resources, but also with its educational services.

The problem of Russian weakness in the sphere of international humanitarian presence has been acute for a long time. According to the head of Rossotrudnichestvo, Konstantin Kosachyov, his structure involves only 600 people (they work in 76 countries), while the Britich Council has offices in 215 cities of 110 countries of the world, it employs 7 thousand people. Even in the CIS countries which are a priority direction for Russia, Moscow falls behind. 107 foreign non-governmental organizations act in Azerbaijan, only one Russian office is situated in Baku. The same situation is in Kyrgyzstan, where only 2 Russian non-governmental organizations act among more than 100 foreign NGO.

By 2020 Rossotrudnichestvo plans to extend its presence to 104 countries where 140-150 offices will work. Premier Dmitry Medvedev thinks that a special attention should be paid to work of offices in the CIS countries and contribution to integration in this space. An important instrument will be the Intergovernmental Targeted Program of Innovation Cooperation between Members of the Commonwealth for the period till 2020. Rossotrudnichestvo was appointed to be its coordinator.

This direction is new for Russia. And Moscow will use experience of the states which provide the policy of “mild force.” At the same time it is obvious that Russia will have to compete with many of these countries. The head of Rossotrudnichestvo Ukrainian Office in Kiev, Konstantin Vorobyov, says that almost all Western information-cultural centers which exist in Ukraine provide the unity of state humanitarian policy which is aimed at involvement of Ukraine to the space of the EU, the US, and their partners. They try to establish a civil society under strange European standards which causes certain resistance inside the society. However, Moscow will hardly allocate huge sums of money for projects even in the priority republics of the post-Soviet space. But the problem is not only about financial resources, it is about disconnection between various departments and lack of necessary coordination.

To be continued