RUSSIAN STRUGGLE FOR SOVEREIGNTY IN CYBERSPACE

The culture of mass communication in Russia has been challenged by the emergence of new communication systems. This has forced the state to seek ways to adapt to today’s globalized and decentralized information sphere. The Internet penetration in Russia has grown quickly during the past decade, requiring state leaders to look for ways to master social media as a means of quick and potentially two-way communication, enabling it to be a tool for themselves and for promoting national security goals. The intention of this article is to deliver insights into how the current Russian information security policies are related to by the top strategic and operational level. In the first part, this article explores the various related policies and doctrines. The insights are then put into the context of social media narratives of President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and the practices of the Federal Security Service. This approach reveals that Russia’s top leadership recognizes the importance of social media, but struggles with the implementation of the aspects that are regarded as significant for Russia’s information security. It is argued, that Russia is recreating the traditional state-centric forms of control in the modern information space and thereby is trying to establish digital sovereignty