russia Is Cutting Funding for Education and Increasing It for Propaganda

putin’s favorite singer, nikolai rastorguev, through his company “dom muzyki,” has submitted an application to the presidential fund for cultural initiatives for 55 million rubles to create the “great russian style” project. According to the authors’ plan, “socio-political narratives” will be promoted through creative content on their own FM radio station, “radio gordost”.

The proposed project brings together all of the kremlin’s favorite terms. In particular, the application is replete with phrases such as “social architecture”, “vision of a bright future”, “sovereignty in all spheres”, and “putin’s grand style”. Such grandiloquence gives the proposal a good chance of being approved. Prior to this, rastorguev’s “house of music” had already received five grants from the foundation totaling over 200 million rubles. The content’s themes are roughly the same across the board. Similarly, the rating for “radio gordost” remains unchanged – at 1% in the latest federal poll.

According to kremlin propagandists, such “brainwashing” measures are intended to divert russians’ demand for a quality education for their children, against the background of this year’s actual 15% cut in state funding for the sector. The ministry of education of the rf, for its part, has already adopted a “radical” decision to improve learning conditions for schoolchildren. Starting September 1, all schools across the federation will replace the usual bell rings with “popular” melodies and songs by russian and soviet composers. According to minister of education of the rf sergey kravtsov, the project helps “foster a well-rounded personality and introduce children to musical culture through exposure to the masterpieces of the country’s renowned composers”.

To further cement the “fundamentality and exceptionality” of russian science, a college textbook entitled “fundamentals of life safety” has been published under the editorship of yulia shoigu, the daughter of the former minister of defense and secretary of the security council of the rf. In it, students are warned about the dangers of Google and Apple, which allegedly monitor their customers’ bank accounts. At this, the authors failed to mention the domestic messaging app MAX, which is deservedly called “a spy in your pocket”.