ANATOMY OF PROPAGANDA: TOP 3 EVENTS OF THE WEEK

Russian propaganda faced the challenge of convincing Russian society of the Kremlin's non-involvement in the crash of Evgeny Prigozhin's business jet last week. Another significant coverage area was in the mitigation of reputational risks caused by the devaluation of the ruble and rising prices.

Undoubtedly, the most resonant event of the past week was the plane crash involving Yevgeny Prigozhin and other leaders of the Wagner PMC. Western media and some Russian turbo-patriotic publications instantly accused Putin of eliminating Prigozhin. Kremlin media technologists had to organize a TV appearance by Putin himself to refute such suspicions, expressing condolences to the families of the deceased.

Mitigating the image consequences of rising prices for products, goods, and services is becoming an increasingly significant task for state propaganda. The issue is no longer ignored, as before, but reframed with media tools. The key focus is on the efforts of the Government and the Central Bank to curb ruble devaluation and contain inflation. Noting the visible price growth, officials continue to assure that consumer inflation will not exceed 6% by the end of the year.

Vladimir Putin is forced to justify his foreign policy isolation, under investigation by the International Criminal Court in The Hague (ICC). Due to the risk of arrest, the President of Russia could not attend South Africa's BRICS summit. Moreover, it became known that he did not plan to personally attend the G20 summit in India on September 9-10. According to the official version, Putin has an overly busy schedule, with the main focus currently being a "special military operation." In order to somehow mitigate the ambiguity of the situation, Russian media actively spread information about the possible visit of President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to Moscow.