Book cover of Ben Judah "Fragile Empire" Cover of the book Ben Judah "Fragile Empire"
I double-crossed Russia from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok, and I had a strong belief that the so-called "Putin majority", which includes representatives of the working class and the residents of provincial towns - no more than a myth. All who watch Russian television and listen to the radio, unaware of the Nizhny Tagil refuge of Putin and his regime, which threatened to come to Moscow and finished with rebellious opposition. When I arrived in Nizhny Tagil, it found no pro-Putin movement and no political associations of Putin. They exist only in the imagination of the local administration. And the workers "Uralvagonzavod" frankly unhappy with the central government, which they see as corrupt and not representing the interests of their clique. They complained about the many domestic problems and did not want to save the Putin regime. However, they do not in any way supported Moscow's opposition, and at the same time ignoring the local representatives of the "United Russia".
 
Speaking in his book "The fragile empire" of Russia, Ben Judah often uses the word "Putinism." This is one of the important concepts in his description of the modern Russian political regime. Can we say that Putinism - is the latest Russian ideology of the ruling class?
 
- In Russia itself, a lot of debate about whether Putinism ideology or a kind of political practice. It seems to me that this concept is not associated with the ideology to the same extent that, say, a person associated with Yeltsin's democracy, and the figure Brezhnev - communism. Putinism - is, of course, the multi-vector policy practice, which also lays the foundations of a consumer society and creates a vertical power - centralized bureaucratic hierarchy of the Soviet type. An important part of putinism - romanticizing the power structures, the cult of the imperial grandeur of the simultaneous simulation of democratic institutions and procedures inherent in Western democracies. All that exists in the background of the growing cult of personality of a national leader and pressure of the atmosphere of a besieged fortress.
 
Ben Judah calls videokratiey Putin's regime, and the Russian president - "populist TV star." In his opinion, in Russia the main instrument of governance and control of the mindset of its people became TV.
 
- In his book on Russia, I'm trying to analyze the implicit and explicit forms of contemporary authoritarian and populist regimes and their methods of control over society. I found that the Putin regime is very similar to the regimes which Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, Silvio Berlusconi in Italy, Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. All these modes have created a new form of control over the media. Tight control over the TV comes with some indulgences in print. Putin has also gone down this path. Television in the Russian state-controlled, but the opposition can let off steam at the radio station "Echo of Moscow" or "Novaya Gazeta". This is a very effective way to control the population.

If you look at the statistics of where the Russians get their information, make sure that the vast majority of the information about the events in the country and the world on television, and only a very small minority draws news from the newspapers. Thus, censored and dissect the information offered to the mass audience, and the opposition of the middle class community provided a tiny space for free information. This is what I call telepopulizmom that lies at the heart of Putin's political regime, received in my book called "videokratiya."

In the Russian television came quite late compared with Western countries. In America, the first teleprezidentom was Kennedy. He communicated with voters on the radio, not through newspapers and on the television screen. Characteristically, the Russian images of all its leaders to Putin destroyed or distorted TV. Brezhnev looked terrible on television, causing only ridicule. Initially, Gorbachev was seen on television quite respectable, but soon lost his positive image in no small measure due to the obligatory presence of his wife, which was not approved by ordinary viewers. Yeltsin was just awful on the screen, and his secret vices became apparent, his image was crumbling before our eyes. Putin has taken into account these negative aspects. On television, he played the role of a courageous leader and father of the nation. The feed is characteristic of his personality and a number of Western national leaders, say, Tony Blair and Silvio Berlusconi, who carefully control their teleobraz. Putin telepopulizm fine work, as viewers perceive its image in the same way as perceived kinoznamenitost or pop star. "
http://www.svoboda.org/content/article/25028603.html