Pussy Riot as agent provocateur: conspiracy theories and the media construction of nation in Putin's Russia

Abstract

This article studies the impact of conspiracy theories on post-Soviet Russian nation-building through the analysis of how the Pussy Riot trial was constructed by the Russian media. Conspiracy theory as a phenomenon is defined as a populist tool for relocation of power among different political actors, which creates identities and boosts social cohesion. This interpretation of conspiracy theories helps investigate how the media constructed the image of Pussy Riot and their supporters as a conspiring subversive minority, which threatened the Russian nation. The ability of conspiracy theory for swift social mobilization helped the authorities to strengthen the public support of its policies and model the Russian nation as ethnically and religiously homogeneous.

Keywords:

• conspiracy theory
• Pussy Riot
• Russian politics
• nation-building
• Russian media

Acknowledgements

This article was produced as a part of the AHRC-funded project “Mediating Post-Soviet Difference: An Analysis of Russian Television Representations of Inter- Ethnic Cohesion Issues,” carried out by Professor Stephen Hutchings and Professor Vera Tolz at the University of Manchester. The author would like to express his gratitude to Profs. Hutchings and Tolz for their support and useful suggestions during the work on this article.