Peter Pomerantsev helps explain this phenomenon in Nothing is True and Everything is Possible, his mesmerising account of the nine years he spent in Russia as a television producer. During that time, Pomerantsev recorded some remarkable human stories about life in modern Russia as well as observing first-hand the brilliant but cynical way that state television cast its spells over the population. The goal, as he put it, was to “synthesise Soviet control with Western entertainment”, turning Russia into a country of canned laughter.
At the heart of this kaleidoscopic world stands Vladislav Surkov, the then Kremlin official hailed as one of the ideologues of “managed democracy”, who directs Russian society as if it were one giant reality show. The mercurial Surkov has helped create a “postmodern dictatorship that uses the language and institutions of democratic capitalism for authoritarian ends”.
The brilliance of this new system, Pomerantsev argues, is that it climbs inside all ideologies and movements and renders them absurd, making it impossible to know what to believe. “The Kremlin has finally mastered the art of fusing reality TV and authoritarianism to keep the great 140m-strong population entertained, distracted, constantly exposed to geopolitical nightmares that if repeated enough times can become infectious.
