Russia according to Vladimir Putin

(Moscow) Russia as Vladimir Putin sees it – prosperous, innovative and without borders – is the subject of a major exhibition in Moscow, in a famous congress center erected in the era of Joseph Stalin. Expo Russia 2024 is a Kremlin eulogy to Russia’s achievements over the past 20 years – primarily Mr. Putin’s rule – and showcases the Russian president’s promises after he secures a new six-year term following pre-settled elections scheduled for this weekend.

In many ways, Expo Russia 2024 is a mirror image of a country where residents choose to ignore – at least publicly – the bloody war in Ukraine that Vladimir Putin started two years ago.

The heart of the exhibition is a large hall housing pavilions from each Russian region, including five regions illegally annexed to Ukraine. One of the pavilions welcomes visitors with two LED screens showing tulip fields in the Belgorod region, bordering Ukraine, a picture of calm and peace.

An image that clashes with the frequency of air warning sirens followed by Ukrainian missile and drone strikes on the city, one of which left 2 dead and 19 injured on Thursday.

At the Crimea pavilion, visitors pose with men costumed as Roman legionnaires next to a video showing the bridge linking Russia to the peninsula, illegally annexed in 2014. Not a word on the 2022 Ukrainian attack that damaged the bridge nor its frequent closures – for hours – because of the war.

Cognitive dissonance

Many Russians have internalized this cognitive dissonance, celebrating the homeland and accepting the Kremlin’s triumphalist narrative, while Putin is a pariah in the West, prices are rising and the Russian army is being bled in Ukraine.

“People have just spent two years in a bizarre state, forced to ignore a national tragedy,” said Greg Yudin, a Russian sociologist and researcher at Princeton University.

Neither the war nor the annexed Ukrainian territories were mentioned by visitors as the New York Times discussed during a recent visit to Expo Russia 2024.

“It may not be a masterpiece, but it shows Russia as it is,” said Maria, a 42-year-old engineer who was visiting the exhibition with her colleague Elena, 63. Both women spoke highly of it, but were hesitant to give their full names to a foreign journalist for fear of reprisals.

Mr. Putin has visited the exhibition four times and is omnipresent with his quotes displayed in numerous pavilions.

“Russia’s borders do not end anywhere,” reads the pavilion of the occupied region of Kherson, Ukraine.

On a recent visit, a woman posed in front of this quote, showing off her biceps while a man photographed her.

Russia’s electoral system is controlled by the Kremlin and Mr Putin is guaranteed a landslide victory over three other candidates. Voting began on Friday and will end on Sunday evening. Putin has ruled Russia since 1999. If he completes his mandate, no Russian leader will have been in power as long as him except Empress Catherine the Great, tsarina from 1762 to 1796.

The vote coincides with Russian advances on the front and a weakening of American support for Ukraine. Recently, Vladimir Putin has adopted a confident tone, reassuring Russians about the internal situation, while toughening his speech towards the West, which he presents as an existential threat to Russia.

But several very notable events occurred on Friday, the first day of voting. Mr. Putin accused Ukraine of trying to disrupt the election by deploying 2,500 troops to its side of the border, near Belgorod. Elsewhere in Russia, voters protested by pouring ink into ballot boxes and throwing Molotov cocktails in front of polling stations.

Information warfare

According to documents obtained by Delfi, an Estonian media outlet, Expo Russia 2024 is part of what the Kremlin calls a domestic “information war,” with a budget of at least US$690 million.

The documents, shown at New York Times and other media outlets, reveal the generous funding of media and film projects aimed at building support for the war – which the Kremlin calls a “special military operation” – and the occupation of part of eastern Ukraine.

For now, the Kremlin’s “information war” appears to be bearing fruit. The enthusiasm expressed by visitors to Expo Russia 2024 and the strong impression it made on them indicate that the Kremlin’s selective vision, two years after the invasion of Ukraine, remains in line with that of many ordinary citizens.

In a February poll by the Levada Analytical Center, 75% of respondents said the country was moving in the right direction – the highest since the question was first asked in 1996.

According to another Levada poll, less than one in five Russians “believe they have the power to change something” in their country. Yet most Russians “still believe they live in a democracy,” says Andrei Kolesnikov, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Moscow.

The children’s army

There is a rare mention of the war at Expo Russia 2024 in a pavilion that promotes two major Kremlin policy priorities: the militarization of society and the “patriotic education” of schoolchildren.

The “children’s army” welcomes little ones with comics showing animals in uniform. Kids can learn how to operate state-of-the-art drones, sit in a virtual reality flight simulator and play a video game called Counter attack.

Domestically, the Kremlin seeks to capitalize on the trauma and drama of war. Military parades and veterans’ visits to school were held to stimulate national pride and patriotism.

In his annual State of Russia address in February, Putin promised to favor the military with a new program called “Time of Heroes,” giving veterans and soldiers access to a special personnel training program .

As Russia adopts a war economy, the Kremlin is “creating a new middle class,” explains Mr. Kolesnikov, the Carnegie analyst.

Yet Russians remain anxious about the war, says Greg Yudin, a Princeton sociologist. Paradoxically, this fear attracts voters to Putin.

“The Russians fear what will happen if we don’t win: we will be humiliated, everyone will be prosecuted, we will have to pay huge reparations; Russia will practically be under foreign control,” explains Mr. Yudin. “These fears are fueled by Putin, who presents himself as the only one who can end the war. »

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