One of the stories in Peter Pomerantsev’s book is about a young man who was a member of a neofascist government group and worked to create the image of “superhero Putin”:
He first made his name by drawing a really rather good manga cartoon that showed the President as superhero doing battle against zombie protesters and evil monster anticorruption bloggers: a nice example of the Surkovian tactic of co-opting hipster language to its own ends, trying to get the “cool” people on the Kremlin’s side.
The cartoon was so successful Kalenik was introduced to senior government officials, and his career as a young spin doctor was launched.
“Politics is the ability to use any situation to advance your own status,” Sergey told me with a smile.
“How do you define your political views?” I asked him.
He looked at me like I was a fool to ask, then smiled: “I’m a liberal . . . it can mean anything!”
Peter Pomerantsev, Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible
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