Conspiracy theories and sovereignization of digital platforms in russia: between strategic narrative and market driven rationality

Resumo

After the full scale invasion of Ukraine Russian authoritarian regime tends to restrict the contact of public opinion with alternative point of view and actively uses the strategy of  partial isolation of RuNet from alternative information inflows. This paper examines the model of Russian digital “sovereignization” and shows the historically conspiracy-based narrative as a basis for it. This narrative organizes the discursive nature digital authoritarianism. At the same time the “real nature” of such authoritarianism is much more cynic and combines the anti-western rhetorics with pragmatic market-oriented decisions.