First Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration (AP), Sergei Kiriyenko, said that in the conditions of a “special operation”, representatives of political professions must satisfy the needs of society for pride in the country, continue to work on its consolidation and convince Russians that the crisis is a time of opportunity. He delivered a speech at the opening of the Digoria forum for young political scientists, Kommersant writes .
All forum participants were divided into “factories”, inside them young political scientists were divided into “workshops”, in which they will form the “image of the future”, discuss the “Ukrainian issue”, strengthen “family values”, and also develop their skills in the “hybrid war” "and the formation of a" proactive agenda ", the newspaper notes.
Kiriyenko, speaking to political scientists, said that the Kremlin is waiting for specific and meaningful projects and practical solutions. According to him, forum participants must find answers to three questions; the first of them is connected "with massive pressure on Russia, attempts to cancel Russian culture, rewrite Russian history, isolate Russia from the world." Kiriyenko said that all this requires an "adequate response."
He referred to some “closed documents”, according to which Russia’s opponents expected that the sanctions would cause enormous public discontent and street protests. However, the unnamed “opponents” of Russia miscalculated, and society in Russia responded to this in a completely different way: “Consolidation of Russian society is the answer given by the citizens of our country.” According to him, even a consolidated society has a need to be proud of the country, which needs to be “satisfied”.
“This means that representatives of civil society, the state have a responsibility to satisfy this need. We must give people the opportunity and reasons for pride, and not only historical ones.”
The second thesis, which was voiced to political scientists by the deputy head of the Presidential Administration, is “Crisis is a time of opportunity.” It is necessary not only to “hide” and engage in import substitution, but also to create something new in all areas: “Gagarin did not substitute anything for imports. And Mendeleev did not import other people's tables. Political scientists, he said, must ensure that this understanding is in public opinion. "The most important task" Kiriyenko called the formation of such an understanding among young people, against whom opponents are allegedly preparing an attack. “If you want to defeat the enemy, raise his children,” he added as an argument about the upcoming “attacks”.
Another task for young political scientists from the Kremlin is related to the “consolidation” of society. Kiriyenko said that the West itself contributed to the unification of the Russians: “For them, we are all Russians. This external pressure creates opportunities for high internal consolidation – interethnic, intergenerational, consolidation between different strata and categories of the population in our country. And that also requires a lot of work.”
Aleksey Zharich, deputy head of the Presidential Department of Public Projects, who spoke next, told political scientists that the authorities were ready to involve them in interpreting current events, for example, in television broadcasts, radio broadcasts and Internet projects. He also mentioned "interpretive work" for young people and recalled that people born in 2006 will vote in the next presidential elections.
Sergei Kiriyenko has served as First Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration since 2016. In March, the United States imposed sanctions against him in connection with Russia's invasion of Ukraine, followed by Japan in April. Earlier, Kiriyenko was already under EU and UK sanctions due to his involvement in the poisoning of opposition politician Alexei Navalny. In July, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia (Vladimir Gundyaev) congratulated Kiriyenko on his 60th birthday and awarded him the Order of Alexander Nevsky II degree.
In June, an appeal to the Day of Russia appeared on the website of the archived version of Izvestia (in the Google cache), allegedly the author of which was Kiriyenko. In it, Kiriyenko “appeals” to the inhabitants of the territories of Ukraine occupied by Russia — Mariupol, Melitopol, Berdyansk, Kherson, Simferopol and Sevastopol. The text also said that the Donbass would be restored with the money of their state budget, even though it would take several trillion rubles. Izvestia called the published material a "hacker attack".