NEWSWATCH BBC: Brand Putin: Russia’s president still in fashion 15 years on

[“Brand Putin: Russia’s president still in fashion 15 years on” – BBC News – Sarah Rainsford – Moscow, March 27, 2015]

The BBC examines Russia President Vladimir Putin’s personal notoriety and power as political symbol.

Fifteen years ago, Vladimir Putin was elected promising to make Russia strong again: a country its citizens could be proud of and that the world would respect.
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While opinion polls do not tell the full story in a country where much of the media is under state control, Mr Putin’s enduring popularity is undeniable.

Clashes with the West over Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea have produced hardship, yet also have seen a strong domestic public reaction to Russian assertiveness.

Last week, Russia marked a year since the annexation of Crimea. … widely supported here, despite the heavy financial burden it brings – that was when Vladimir Putin’s popularity rating topped 80% for the first time.

Loudly condemned in the West as illegal, in Russia the annexation is presented as reversing the “unjust” transfer of the peninsula to Soviet Ukraine in 1954.

Some also clearly revel in a post-Soviet Moscow starting to flex its political muscle.

Media control has been important to Putin’s image.

President Putin made controlling the airwaves a priority when he came to power: satirical shows mocking senior figures swiftly disappeared.
Fifteen years later, the result is a monochrome landscape of state-controlled channels that mouth the same anti-Western rhetoric without a word of criticism for the president.

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