"We are witnessing a staging of Putin's undivided power"

• Television speeches, diplomatic meetings... The staging of Vladimir Putin's speeches are as meaningful as his speeches.

• "We observe a form of turning point in the staging of power which probably militarizes the image of the [Russian] president and which hardens a very personal exercise of power", explains to

  20 Minutes

  Françoise Daucé, director of study at the EHESS, the School of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences.

It was during a very solemn televised address that Vladimir Putin officially announced the start of his “military operation” in Ukraine.

Broadcast overnight from Wednesday to Thursday, the images show the Russian president seated at his desk, firm and impassive, surrounded on both sides by flags in the colors of his country.

A speech heavy with meaning, both in the speech and in its staging.

At the beginning of the week, another sequence had marked the spirits.

That of Vladimir Putin particularly authoritarian and abrupt during his security council, as evidenced by the images relayed by BFMTV.

We also remember the meeting between the Russian president and Emmanuel Macron last week, around an excessively long table and an icy atmosphere.

Particularly orchestrated and thoughtful appearances which testify to a notable hardening of the Russian president's tone in recent weeks, as well as a mastery of staging.

Even a "theatricalization of political power", as mentioned to

Françoise Daucé, director of studies at the EHESS.

Vladimir Putin is a master of self and power staging.

Has this facet been particularly accentuated lately?

We have observed for several years, but especially for one year, an increasingly strong supervision of the public space in general and of the press in Russia.

There is ever-tighter pressure and control over the media, which involves the registration of a certain number of titles and independent journalists as foreign agents.

That is to say that the media space is composed on the one hand of media which are loyal to power and take up the official narrative, and on the other hand of media which try to put forward an alternative or critical voice but which must publish under the name "foreign agent" appearing on all their publications.

Obviously, in a context of international tensions, that immediately discredits them.

Nor should everything be centered on the president,

What we have seen in recent weeks and days is a theatricalization of political power in Russia, a staging of Vladimir Putin's unchallenged power.

And this is relayed by the official media or by those loyal to the Kremlin.

It is very difficult for the alternative media and the opposition to criticize these stagings because they no longer have a voice.

What is this dramatization going through, what are the symbols used?

The staging is consistent with the project or the political message that Vladimir Putin is trying to convey.

It is first of all about the return of Russia's geostrategic greatness on the international scene.

The staging involves these meetings in the most majestic rooms of the Kremlin and the highlighting of the signs of Russian sovereignty: the flag, the eagle… There is a kind of extreme formalization of speaking.

What we also observe is the staging of a conservative power composed almost exclusively of men.

You have probably seen this session where Vladimir Putin gathers the opinion of the members of the Security Council and where, in turn, they come to show their allegiance to the Head of State by supporting the position he suggests they take.

In this sequence, there is only one woman:

During this council, Vladimir Putin adopted a very authoritarian position.

Has this tone particularly hardened in recent weeks?

The extreme personalization of power and the highlighting of the image of the president are things that we have seen for many years... There, we also observe a form of turning point in the staging of power which probably militarizes the image of the president and which hardens a very personal exercise of power.

All these elements involved in the staging are therefore particularly well thought out?

Nothing is left to chance.

All the symbols have been designed to mark the return of Russia and its Head of State to the international scene.

It is also the staging of a kind of confrontation with the Western world and the United States through Ukraine.

You evoked the staging of an “undivided power”.

Does this also contain this image of a single man decision-maker?

I may be going to make an assumption that is too cumbersome, but Vladimir Putin, he showed it well in his speeches, is obsessed with the history of Russia and its place in history.

There, one has the feeling that he can rise to the height of the historical leaders of Russia who, in the past, exercised power in a personalized and authoritarian way.

We almost have this feeling that he is trying to fit into this line of Russian and Soviet leaders.

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• Vladimir Poutine

• Russia

• Media

• War in Ukraine

• World

• War

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