Description:

The Buffett Institute for Global Affairs hosts running colloquia for graduate students to present their research to globally engaged faculty and fellow students. In our first colloquium of the year, Political Science PhD candidate Dinara Urazova will present on “Cynicism, Propaganda and Putin’s Aesthetics of Sovereignty.” Q&A and discussion will follow; light refreshments will be served.

Urazova's research project explores the connection between authoritarianism, media and foreign policy in post-Soviet Russia. Some argue that the stability of the regime rests on propagandistic brainwashing, and that therefore, the regime would collapse once true information reaches the Russian population. However, this research seeks to broaden the scope of propaganda research beyond mere "brainwashing." She argues that cynicism about truth claims is already a prevalent feature of Russian culture. The regime sustains itself by tapping into this cynicism. It does so by both perpetuating doubts about truth claims, while at the same time presenting Putin as an ostensible "exception" to the cynical status quo. Thus, the regime symbols center around the strongman persona of Putin, elevating him above the quotidian disappointments of Russian citizens. Power is thereby secured as the performance of awesome power and grandeur.

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