The US Agency for International Development (USAID), aimed at spreading American values all over the world, has started packing up in Russia early this week. Moscow was the initiator of closing down the instrument of American “soft power”, referring to Russian laws.
The achievements of the US agency cannot be overestimated. Obviously, USAid’s support of non-commercial organizations was never met with rapture in Moscow. Looking at the way Americans work, Russia has finally realized that a powerful country has its own culture, political ideals and programs.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said: “state influence depends on the ability to promote one's own national cultural values and language and export them. This is, in fact, a special resource of international leadership related to human potential. These instruments are often more important than others. States with strong brands of “soft power” attract the majority of direct foreign investments and technologies and our competitors use this with great pleasure and hunt for our talented young people and innovators, which is common practice. We should do just the same, by forming the right conditions for creativity in our country.”
Moscow is considering restoring positions lost in the 1990s, recognizing that promotion of humanitarian interests by Rossotrudnichestvo falls behind serious international players in this sphere, such as Francophonie and the Institutes of Goethe, Cervantes, Dante and Confucius.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said: “we promote the idea in order for Rossotrudnichestvo to be authorized for support of international development. The government has approved a related concept recently. We want most support (free and beneficial) we provide to various states, especially CIS states, under international standards, to be presented to the public and to be used more efficiently in our foreign political work”. In other words, Rossotrudnichestvo should not only be working with the CIS, but needs real resources and regional coordination by a single center.
Rossotrudnichestvo will most likely become the only state structure selecting foreign students to study at Russian higher education centers. The people at the Russian Foreign Ministry believe that Rossotrudnichestvo could select and recommend promising students to study in Russia. Russian authorities pay scholarships to 10,000 foreign students annually. This figure is expected to double with quotas for compatriots and CIS people.
But the main problem in using the instruments of “soft power” is lack of financing. 80% of the science and culture centers that Rossotrudnichestvo manages abroad need capital reconstruction, not to mention that they all need modern equipment. “The condition of buildings is both the face of our state and the prestige of Russia. They need to become centers of attraction for compatriots, our friends and anyone interested in Russia. They need to become centers of Russian influence in public opinion, using the factors and instruments of “soft power”, Lavrov believes.
Practice shows that people interested in Russia need only a little push sometimes. Modern communication devices allow interaction with them without great expense. After booting USAid from Russia, Moscow became active in America. Yuri Zaitsev, head of the Rossotrudnichestvo office in the USA, noted that “the attitude towards Russia in the USA is special, it is not the most warm, not what it used to be a decade ago. A new generation has grown, a generation filled with information, hungry for information willing to know a lot. During the last 20 years, many of our compatriots have ended up in the US and many Americans have visited Russia. A new generation has grown up, lacking stereotypes and with a demand for information about Russia. They are interested in understanding and knowing Russia. We have organized visits to Moscow and Saint-Petersburg fast, 70 young political leaders, businessmen and journalists have visited Russia. It had a great effect on the US. They created an electronic portal and chat, carry out propaganda, i.e. they work helping us. In some cases, some cities have formed non-governmental organizations called Russian cultural societies. For instance, the US country area of Memphis has a Russian flag over the Russian Cultural Center founded by Americans on Main Street”.
It is obvious that Russia will not invest the same sum of money the US uses for its own “soft power”. “There will always be sad figures: what part of our power remains and what part disappeared. There is a parity of missiles and a disparity of soft power. But we should not only compare ourselves with the Chinese (there will be fewer of us than the Chinese for a very long time) and Americans (and we will hardly have as much money as the Americans will have in the coming years), but we should learn to act irregularly in this situation. It is better to compare ourselves with the French and Germans in this case. Because their influence on a certain part of the world and their use of instruments of soft power greatly exceeds their economic potential. This will help us maintain the influence that the Soviet Union traditionally had, even with all the disadvantages of its historical presence.”
Yekaterina Tesemnikova, exclusively for VK
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