From ‘Putin the Saviour’ to ‘Irreplaceable Putin’:The Role of the 1990s in the Kremlin’s Strategic Communications
Journal: Research Portal (King's College London)
Year: 2021

The Soviet Union ceased to exist thirty ago. However, its memory and the memory of the decade of crisis that followed its dissolution, continue to serve the Kremlin. Existing literature claims that Vladimir Putin, helped by the state-controlled media, has manipulated the memory of the Soviet Union and the trauma of the 1990s to justify his regime. This article takes a different approach. By adopting the framework of Strategic Communications, it claims that the Kremlin used the traumatic experien