PROMOTION OF UNPOPULAR POLITICALDECISIONS AS A TECHNOLOGY OF PUBLIC OPINION MANIPULATION

Abstract

The author analyzed several precedents for the promotion of unpopular political decisions in 2018 and assessed the use of communication technologies in order to achieve trust in the government and make these decisions as a necessary and well-grounded. I analyzed the cases related to the blocking and further unblocking of the popular messenger Telegram, the increase in the value-added tax, the increase in the retirement age, the increase in tariffs for housing and communal services. These cases I chose due to the need to cover the interests of the widest possible segments of the population in order to be able to describe the reactions of both older and younger generations. As an empirical base of the research, I explored the results of relevant surveys conducted by the “Public Opinion Foundation” and the “Russian Public Opinion Research Center” (JSC “VCIOM”). Finally, the author presented the current technologies of manipulation of mass consciousness used in the contemporary Russian society related to socio-political transformations that are negatively perceived by the population due to the historically established features of political and psychological perception of social and political reality by the Russian citizens.