In 2004 Joseph Nye, in his book ‘Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics’ defined soft power What the ability to influence the preferences of other actors through the cooptation and attraction rather than by force or threat of force. Thus, he argued that all great powers have a soft power that derives from three types of resources: culture, political values and foreign policy.
And Russia is no exception.. Historically, Russia’s soft power has been intensely exercised within the framework of the post-Soviet space, that is, where the ability to attract elites towards the Russian sphere of influence has been substantial. The option of an alternative political system to that of liberal democracies that allowed political and economic elites to maintain their share of power along with the use of Russian as the lingua franca of the area it allowed Moscow to deploy this soft power.
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Beyond the post-Soviet space and knowing that its economic power and capacity for influence in the global sphere was much less than that of China and the US, Russia has tried to compete with them through the deployment of ‘limited budget’ soft power and controlled by the state, who managed to acting as a counter-power in the face of the hegemonic narrative and discourse of the United States. Thus, since Putin came to power, Russia has been building soft power strategies that operate with a strategy that seeks the highest efficiency at the lowest cost. Thus, it has used microtargeting to achieve greater influence in foreign policy. The main objective is not to reach large audiences, but only those groups that could be more receptive to Russian strategic narratives, which are articulated on four fundamental pillars: Russian history and culture, the Soviet legacy, ideology and current government, based on moral conservatism, illiberal governance and strong leadership, as well as its foreign action. Russian moral conservatism, with its staunch defense of Christian values, together with the autocratic style of the Kremlin have been a source of inspiration for radical right-wing leaders around the world, but especially in Europe, something that cannot be denied. , worked at least until the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
And for all this to operate relatively smoothly, it has been necessary for the Russian State forcefully reactivated its diplomatic deployment, both in terms of the deployment of a proactive economic diplomacy through state corporations. such as Rosatom and Gazprom, as well as through a dynamic public diplomacy, designed to promote interests and values among public opinion, but also to do business, and this has been done, to a large extent, by the honorary consuls.