{"id":244108,"date":"2025-07-07T01:56:33","date_gmt":"2025-07-07T01:56:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/244108\/"},"modified":"2025-07-07T01:56:33","modified_gmt":"2025-07-07T01:56:33","slug":"russias-oscar-rigging-solovyovs-praise-for-zelensky-and-a-putin-ideologists-obama-portrait-what-we-learned-from-ukrainian-producer-alexander-rodnyanskys-new-memoi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/244108\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia\u2019s Oscar rigging, Solovyov\u2019s praise for Zelensky, and a Putin ideologist\u2019s Obama portrait What we learned from Ukrainian producer Alexander Rodnyansky\u2019s new memoir"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former top Kremlin ideologue Vladimir Surkov kept a photo of Barack Obama in his office<\/p>\n

In 1988, Rodnyansky first saw the future Kremlin ideologist Vladislav Surkov at a gathering of Russian rock fans in Kyiv. At the time, the Ukrainian capital was home to a vibrant community that regularly attracted visiting Russian rock enthusiasts, who would gather to listen to music, smoke weed, and talk for hours. By today\u2019s standards, it was a familiar scene, but back then, they stood out as true \u201cWesternizers\u201d \u2014 free-spirited and defiant.<\/p>\n

Even though we\u2019re outlawed in Russia, we continue to deliver exclusive reporting and analysis from inside the country.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our journalists on the ground take risks to keep you informed about changes in Russia during its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.\u00a0Support<\/a>\u00a0Meduza\u2019s work today.<\/p>\n

According to Rodnyansky, even when he later became the Kremlin\u2019s shadowy power broker, Surkov \u201cremained true to the spirit of rock \u2019n\u2019 roll for many years.\u201d His office in the presidential administration building featured photos of John Lennon, Tupac Shakur, Che Guevara, and Barack Obama. While managing the Kremlin\u2019s ideological strategy, he also wrote songs with Vadim Samoylov, co-founder of the rock back Agatha Christie, and published a provocative novel under a pseudonym titled Almost Zero.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former top Kremlin ideologue Vladimir Surkov kept a photo of Barack Obama in his office In 1988, Rodnyansky…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244109,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7655],"tags":[332,7888,7883,7886,7875,7868,7880,7870,7881,7887,7876,7864,7871,7865,7873,7874,7866,7869,7867,7885,7879,7872,7884,7882,7878,7877],"class_list":{"0":"post-244108","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-russia","8":"tag-russia","9":"tag-7888","10":"tag-7883","11":"tag-7886","12":"tag-7875","13":"tag-7868","14":"tag-7880","15":"tag-7870","16":"tag-7881","17":"tag-7887","18":"tag-7876","19":"tag-7864","20":"tag-7871","21":"tag-7865","22":"tag-7873","23":"tag-7874","24":"tag-7866","25":"tag-7869","26":"tag-7867","27":"tag-7885","28":"tag-7879","29":"tag-7872","30":"tag-7884","31":"tag-7882","32":"tag-7878","33":"tag-7877"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114809469941057628","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}