One afternoon late August, as Russia’s military pursued its invasion in Ukraine, one of Russian President
‘s top advisers was mustering public-relations officials from government bodies and ministries for a fight on the home front.
“The main war that is taking place right now is the war over people’s minds,”
Sergei Kiriyenko,
a longtime aide to Mr. Putin charged with key domestic and Ukraine policies, said in a speech at a closed meeting. “All of us in this room are the special forces fighting this war.”
The Aug. 30 speech, a recording of which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, gives a rare insight into Mr. Putin’s efforts to mobilize all of society for Russia’s war with Ukraine and its neighbor’s Western backers.
Girding for a lengthy war, the Kremlin is seeking a return to a level of control over shaping its citizens’ minds that the country hasn’t seen since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, say former Russian officials, current Western officials and Kremlin critics.
Mr. Putin has taken an increasingly tight hold over the flow of information and messages shaping public opinion during his 23 years in power. Since the war began, any residual veneer of pluralism has been stripped away.
Opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta and liberal radio station Ekho Moskvy, which for years aired divergent opinions, were forced to shut down in Russia due to restrictions by the state censor.
Dmitry Muratov, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and editor in chief of opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta, in court in September.
Photo:
Maxim Shipenkov/EPA/Shutterstock
Dmitry Muratov, editor in chief of opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta, which Russia forced to shut down.
Photo:
EVGENIA NOVOZHENINA/REUTERS
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