“Under Surkov the paradigm of power relations in Russia was ‘loyalism’ – be loyal, we are fighting against those who fight against us,” said Marat Guelman, a former political consultant who worked with Mr Surkov. Now the enemy is not just those who are opposed to the regime, but anyone who is not actively in favour of it, he says.
“Now everyone must be afraid. This is a new oprichnina,” Mr Guelman says, using the Russian term for the reign of Ivan the Terrible in the 16th century.
Mr Surkov had an “ironic” attitude towards his own political creations, Mr Guelman says. He wrote rock lyrics, hung a picture of Che Guevara on his wall and even penned a novel under a pseudonym about a cynical ghost writer who sells his literary creations to the highest bidder – an awkwardly self referential celebration of political venality.
But the playful, postmodern attitude of the Surkov days has been replaced by a more ideological and confrontational approach under Mr Volodin, with an accent on nationalism and anti-westernism.
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