From controlling military information to controlling society: the political interests involved in the transformation of the military media under Putin

‘War and Peace’ at the 1980 Moscow and 2014 Sochi Olympics: The Role of Hard and Soft Power in Russian Identity

“…122 To an international observer visual representations of Putin send an unambiguous geopolitical message of Russia laying claims at great power. In this regard, Putin, bearing in mind historical importance of military prowess for national unity, has particularly relied on militant patriotism, 123 generated by the second Chechen campaign to legitimatize his decisions at the beginning of his presidential tenure. 124 This was the period charged with what Eichler hails as 'militarized masculinity' in official representations of Putin.…”

The Russian Military Today and Tomorrow: Essays in Memory of Mary Fitzgerald

“…65 Clearly the military's threat assessment of 2006-08 that found its way into the new security strategy was embedded in the social relations of power as expressed in the state's takeover of control of military information and media and the central, or federal and regional instruments of media after 2000 that systematically fostered and disseminated a worldview based on this presupposition of conflicts and threats. 66 But there is no desire or perhaps capability to return completely to a Soviet mobilization state, hence the incoherence of Russian policy. Another way to state this is that despite its ambitions and the expansiveness of its threat perception, Russia cannot sustain either the magnitude of what its elites want to build or deal effectively with the real as opposed to notional threats confronting it.…”

“…This is a radical departure from the past, where regular officers have generally played the roles normally assigned to NCOs in Western armies. 66 Creating a NCO corps will not be easy. It goes against one of the most deeply held attributes of the Russian military, the refusal to delegate authority.…”

“…His credentials as a Party member and defender of Bolshevism extended to his role in the suppression of the Kronstadt naval mutiny and the anti-partisan operations he conducted during the Tambov peasant revolt. 66 He was also an avowed enemy of voenspetsy (military specialists) as incompetents who could not fight "class warfare" or as wreckers seeking to undermine Soviet power from within. 67 He was also the avowed champion of strategic annihilation as the point of departure for the development of the Soviet military mobilization society and for the actual conduct of warfare.…”

What is Controlled by Civilian Control of the Military? Control of the Military vs. Control of Militarization

“…3 In Israel, civilian control has been enhanced since the 1970s, leading to an overly subordinate military whose professional autonomy has been impaired, 4 while the government has enjoyed more legitimacy to launch offensive campaigns in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. 5 In Russia, during Putin's rule, the military's subversive behavior toward elected politicians has been moderated and its freedom of action restricted, 6 however, militarization in terms of patriotic education, 7 and the inflation of external threats 8 has flourished.…”