Good Czar, bad boyars: the political economy of Russian war propaganda
Journal: Public Choice
Year: 2025

Abstract Fall 2022 was marked by a dramatic change in Russian information space. After months of boasting about the military campaign in Ukraine, Kremlin propagandists admitted certain military defeats and began to blame senior military command. I explain the change by reference to propaganda, asymmetric information, and informational autocrats. The propagandists could not conceal the defeats because war bloggers and military barons were disseminating information while mobilization was signaling