Russian disinformation as dialog: “Sovereignism” concept’s time-space travel
Communication is never one-way. Even the most rigid propaganda megaphone needs to adjust, fine-tune and adapt to the audience. Pro-Kremlin propaganda outlets are very much listening to the audience; analyzing results, impact and reach.
The disinformation process is a dialogue; where the liar carefully adapts to the values of the audience; picking up concepts, ideas, multiplying messages and packaging hard lies in a soft enclosure of half-truths and facts, taken out of context. An example of this dialogue is the concept of “sovereignism”, relatively recently appearing in the European political terminology.
Sovereignism goes to Europe
The term entered the EU discourse in the early 2000s. In this context, it became a part of the perpetual dispute between “federalists” and “unionists.” The concept of “sovereignism” is strongly connected to Henri Guaino, an advisor to former French president Nicolas Sarkozy who expressed a vision of strengthening French national interests, opposing a stronger integration of the EU.
The word суверенизм/суверенист appears in Russian approximately at the same time. The Russian nationalist philosopher Aleksandr Dugin brings it up in 2005 in a comment to the French referendum on the European Constitution. Dugin uses the word to describe the opposition of the Washington-led Euroatlantic process.
