For Russia, soft power doesn’t have to mean being a softy

... Director of the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC), and Marina Lebedeva, head of the Department of World Politics at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO-University), to discuss the country’s attempts at using soft power. In the interview below, Kortunov and Lebedeva discuss the reasons why Russia struggles to improve its image abroad as well as the controversial role of propaganda in modern geopolitics. Russia Direct: What are the major problems of Russian soft power? Andrei Kortunov : I would highlight three levels of problems as well as three distinct types of problems. The first level is having an objective foundation ...