Civil-Society and Russian Strategic Culture – Military Civic Groups under Putin

• In Event: Russia's Domestic Traits and Foreign Policy

Abstract

Russian civic associations (veterans groups, youth organizations, religious communities, etc.) have become integral to both the construction and maintenance of contemporary Russian strategic culture. Their participation in this process is the product of numerous domestic political, cultural and institutional efforts. First, civil-society groups have actively engaged in the promotion of a variety of policies, ideas and symbols related to Russian security and defense policy. Second, President Putin has mobilized or “engineered” these groups and their symbols in the promotion of Russian strategic culture.
First, the paper will briefly analyze the evolution of civil-society in post-Soviet Russia. Second, it will investigate the iterative dynamics between these associations, their members and the politics of strategic development. These dynamics are the product of mutually constructed and contested images and arguments regarding defense policy, the use of force and the broader Russian society and political system. Finally, the analysis will focus on contemporary Russian politics in which Putin is consciously promoting a nostalgia for the Soviet era combined with a an image of Russia intricately connected to notions of heroism, masculinity, and military greatness/prowess. Civic groups increasingly play a critical role in regime legitimation and notions of nationalism and national identity – all essential aspects of Russian strategic culture.

Author

• Jack Porter, The Citadel