ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an analysis of the Kremlin’s role in taking advantage of the post-fact/post-truth sphere, both in the domestic policies dealing with social, political, and economic issues and as a political/strategic tool in the international setting. Strategic narratives have always been used in Soviet times. The divergence of media narratives between Western and Eastern media is a crucial part of a new kind of hybrid warfare, or postmodern warfare, where military actions, propaganda, political activity, and online campaigns are combined. In Western societies, post-truth represents a dangerous surge of populism with implications that are not ‘just’ ethical but also destabilising for domestic politics and geopolitics: it is an emerging security challenge and governments must cooperate to cope with it. It is also true that some Western populist leaders see Putin’s Russia as a model, where “Putinism and populism are mutually reinforcing phenomena with some shared components”.
