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Valdai International Discussion Club
The Valdai Discussion Club is a Moscow-based think tank and discussion forum. It was established in 2004 and is named after Lake Valdai, which is located close to Veliky Novgorod, where the Club’s first meeting took place. In 2014, the management of the Club was transferred to the Valdai Club Foundation, established in 2011 by the Council on Foreign and Defence Policy, the Russian International Affairs Council, Moscow State Institute of International Relations, and the Higher School of Economics. British journalist Angus Roxburgh described it as part of the Russian propaganda effort. Overview The 2004 Valdai conference was attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Among many other Russian Government officials attending Valdai meetings are Dmitry Medvedev, Prime Minister and former President; Sergey Ivanov, former Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office; Sergey Lavrov, Minister of Foreign Affairs; Sergey Shoygu, Minister of Defence. Professors and schola ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million residents within the city limits, over 17 million residents in the urban area, and over 21.5 million residents in the metropolitan area. The city covers an area of , while the urban area covers , and the metropolitan area covers over . Moscow is among the world's largest cities; being the most populous city entirely in Europe, the largest urban and metropolitan area in Europe, and the largest city by land area on the European continent. First documented in 1147, Moscow grew to become a prosperous and powerful city that served as the capital of the Grand Duchy that bears its name. When the Grand Duchy of Moscow evolved into the Tsardom of Russia, Moscow remained the political and economic center for most of the Tsardom's history. Whe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Collective Security Treaty Organization
The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) is an intergovernmental military alliance in Eurasia consisting of six post-Soviet states: Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan. The Collective Security Treaty has its origins in the Soviet Armed Forces, which was replaced in 1992 by the United Armed Forces of the Commonwealth of Independent States, and was then itself replaced by the successor armed forces of the respective independent states. Similar to Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty and the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance, Article 4 of the Collective Security Treaty (CST) establishes that an aggression against one signatory would be perceived as an aggression against all. The CSTO charter reaffirmed the desire of all participating states to abstain from the use or threat of force. Signatories are prohibited from joining other military alliances. Activities Exercises The CSTO holds yearly military command exercises for t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kazan
Kazan ( ; rus, Казань, p=kɐˈzanʲ; tt-Cyrl, Казан, ''Qazan'', IPA: ɑzan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka rivers, covering an area of , with a population of over 1.2 million residents, up to roughly 1.6 million residents in the urban agglomeration. Kazan is the fifth-largest city in Russia, and the most populous city on the Volga, as well as the Volga Federal District. Kazan became the capital of the Khanate of Kazan and was conquered by Ivan the Terrible in the 16th century, becoming a part of Russia. The city was seized and largely destroyed during Pugachev's Rebellion of 1773–1775, but was later rebuilt during the reign of Catherine the Great. In the following centuries, Kazan grew to become a major industrial, cultural and religious centre of Russia. In 1920, after the Russian SFSR became a part of the Soviet Union, Kazan became the capital of the Tatar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Khanty-Mansiysk
Khanty-Mansiysk ( rus, Ха́нты-Манси́йск, Khánty-Mansíysk, lit. ''Khanty-Mansi Town''; Khanty: , ''Jomvoćś''; Mansi: , ''Abga'') is a city and the administrative center of Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug–Yugra, Russia. It stands on the eastern bank of the Irtysh River, from its confluence with the Ob, in the oil-rich region of Western Siberia. Though an independent city, Khanty-Mansiysk also functions as the administrative center of Khanty-Mansiysky District. Khanty-Mansiysk is one of few capitals of Russian regions that is not the largest city in the area, surpassed by Surgut, Nizhnevartovsk and Nefteyugansk. Etymology The city's name consists of the names of the local indigenous people ''Khanty'' and ''Mansi'' and includes ''"-sk"'' ending which is a typical Russian ending for the town names. Before 1940 these people were known as ''Ostyaks'' and ''Voguls'' respectively and the city's name (then settlement) was ''Ostyako-Vogulsk''. Geography Climate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tver
Tver ( rus, Тверь, p=tvʲerʲ) is a city and the administrative centre of Tver Oblast, Russia. It is northwest of Moscow. Population: Tver was formerly the capital of a powerful medieval state and a model provincial town in the Russian Empire, with a population of 60,000 on 14 January 1913. It is situated at the confluence of the Volga and Tvertsa Rivers. The city was known as Kalinin ( rus, Кали́нин, Kalínin) from 1931 to 1990. The city is where three rivers meet, splitting the town into northern and southern parts by the Volga River, and divided again into quarters by the Tvertsa River, which splits the left (northern) bank into east and west halves, and the Tmaka River which does the same along the southern bank. History Medieval origins Tver's foundation year is officially accepted to be 1135,Charter of Tver, Article 1 although there is no universal agreement on this date and some estimates place it as late as the second half of the 13th century. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
RIA Novosti
RIA Novosti (russian: РИА Новости), sometimes referred to as RIAN () or RIA (russian: РИА, label=none) is a Russian state-owned domestic news agency. On 9 December 2013 by a decree of Vladimir Putin it was liquidated and its assets and workforce were transferred to the newly created Rossiya Segodnya agency. On 8 April 2014 RIA Novosti was registered as part of the new agency. RIA Novosti is headquartered in Moscow. The chief editor is Anna Gavrilova. Content RIA Novosti was scheduled to be closed down in 2014; starting in March 2014, staff were informed that they had the option of transferring their contracts to Rossiya Segodnya or sign a redundancy contract. On 10 November 2014, Rossiya Segodnya launched the Sputnik multimedia platform as the international replacement of RIA Novosti and Voice of Russia. Within Russia itself, however, Rossiya Segodnya continues to operate its Russian language news service under the name RIA Novosti with its ria.ru website. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Soft Power
In politics (and particularly in international politics), soft power is the ability to co-opt rather than coerce (contrast hard power). In other words, soft power involves shaping the preferences of others through appeal and attraction. A defining feature of soft power is that it is non-coercive; the currency of soft power includes culture, political values, and foreign policies. In 2012, Joseph Nye of Harvard University explained that with soft power, "the best propaganda is not propaganda", further explaining that during the Information Age, "credibility is the scarcest resource". Nye popularised the term in his 1990 book, ''Bound to Lead: The Changing Nature of American Power''. In this book he wrote: "when one country gets other countries to want what it wants might be called co-optive or soft power in contrast with the hard or command power of ordering others to do what it wants". He further developed the concept in his 2004 book, ''Soft Power: The Means to Success in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Useful Idiot
In political jargon, a useful idiot is a term currently used to reference a person perceived as propagandizing for a cause—particularly a bad cause originating from a devious, ruthless source—without fully comprehending the cause's goals, and who is cynically being used by the cause's leaders. The term was often used during the Cold War to describe non-communists regarded as susceptible to communist propaganda and manipulation. Origin The phrase ''useful idiot'' has often been attributed to Vladimir Lenin, but he is not documented as ever having used the phrase. In a 1987 article for ''The New York Times'', American journalist William Safire investigated the origin of the term, commenting that a senior reference librarian at the Library of Congress had been unable to find the phrase in Lenin's works and concluding that in the absence of new evidence, the term could not be attributed to Lenin. Similarly, the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' in defining ''useful idiot'' says ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lilia Shevtsova
Lilia Fyodorovna Shevtsova (russian: Ли́лия Фёдоровна Шевцо́ва; born 7 October 1949 in Lviv, Ukrainian SSR) is a Kremlinology expert. Biography Shevtsova received Bachelor of Arts, B.A. and Master of Arts, M.A. in history and journalism from Moscow State Institute of International Relations in 1971. She also received Ph.D. in political science from the Academy of Social Sciences of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (the highest educational establishment of the CPSU, which prepared theoretical workers for Party institutions) in 1976. She served as director of the Center for Political Studies in Moscow, and as deputy director of the Moscow Institute of International Economic and Political Studies. Shevtsova taught political science at Georgetown University, Berkeley University, Cornell University and was visiting professor at the Davis Center for Russia and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University. She was Senior Associate of Carn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Propaganda
Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded language to produce an emotional rather than a rational response to the information that is being presented. Propaganda can be found in news and journalism, government, advertising, entertainment, education, and activism and is often associated with material which is prepared by governments as part of war efforts, political campaigns, health campaigns, revolutionaries, big businesses, ultra-religious organizations, the media, and certain individuals such as soapboxers. In the 20th century, the English term ''propaganda'' was often associated with a manipulative approach, but historically, propaganda has been a neutral descriptive term of any material that promotes certain opinions or ideologies. Equivalent non-English terms have also l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carnegie Moscow Center
The Carnegie Moscow Center () was a Moscow-based think tank that focuses on domestic and foreign policy. It was established in 1994 as a regional affiliate of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. It was the number one think tank in Central and Eastern Europe and the 26th top think tank in the world, according to the University of Pennsylvania’s 2014 Global Go To Think Tank Index. In April 2022, the Carnegie Moscow Center was forced to close at the direction of the Russian government. Controversies According to American journalist James Kirchick, the Carnegie Moscow Center was one of the leading "Western" think tanks in the field of Russian research, but the situation changed after the 2012 Russian presidential election, when Vladimir Putin became the president of Russia again. In January 2013, Putin's critic and the then chair of the think tank's Society and Regions Program, , left the center after the cancellation of his program. Petrov said that the decision t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World Economic Forum
The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental and lobbying organisation based in Cologny, canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German engineer and economist Klaus Schwab. The foundation, which is mostly funded by its 1,000 member companies – typically global enterprises with more than five billion US dollars in turnover – as well as public subsidies, views its own mission as "improving the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic, and other leaders of society to shape global, regional, and industry agendas". The WEF is mostly known for its annual meeting at the end of January in Davos, a mountain resort in the eastern Alps region of Switzerland. The meeting brings together some 3,000 paying members and selected participants – among whom are investors, business leaders, political leaders, economists, celebrities and journalists – for up to five days to discuss global issues across 500 sessions. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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