Registration REQUIRED by 4pm on September 29, 2025 in order to attend this event.
Please join the Program on U.S.-Russia Relations at the Harriman Institute for a lecture by Andrew Ryvkin. Moderated by Elise Giuliano.
How does a government sell war, repression, or the curbing of freedoms to millions of people in the age of attention economy? If you think Russian propaganda is just burly TV hosts threatening to drown the Eastern Seaboard and millions of bots on X, then you haven’t been paying attention. In today’s Russia, the boundaries between entertainment and propaganda have all but disappeared. The Kremlin’s disinformation machine is no longer built only on bureaucracy and censorship—it operates like a modern media conglomerate, blending state messaging with digital marketing, social media influencers, and Netflix (yes, the Kremlin has its own streaming platform). Modern propaganda is memes, influencers, and sophisticated campaigns to market government initiatives in ways that resemble consumer brands. Drawing on his experience as both a Kremlin propagandist and a journalist covering Russia for The Atlantic and Air Mail, Andrew Ryvkin will show how propaganda is packaged and spread, and what can we do to counter it.
Andrew Ryvkin is a journalist and commentator who writes for The Atlantic and Air Mail, specializing in Russian politics, information warfare, and the inner workings of Kremlin power. Before his career in Western media, he spent years inside Russia’s propaganda machine—publishing lifestyle magazines that featured Kremlin talking points and creating hit talk shows and blockbuster films that influenced domestic opinion. He helped Russian oligarchs to craft their public image. His current reporting focuses on Russian disinformation, the evolution of propaganda in the digital era, and U.S.-Russia relations.
