The Great Gameand the evolving nature of political talk shows on Russian television

Much has been written about the specific way in which the Russian government under President Vladimir V. Putin uses television to propagate pro-government views on domestic and international politics by influencing what is aired. This paper examines the first season ofThe Great Game(Bol'shaya Igrain Russian), a television talk show that appears on Russia's national television network Channel One, as an example of the government's effort to shape public opinion. A content analysis suggestsThe Great Gamediffers from the typical Russian talk show genre in that it delivers political messages without much entertainment, providing cerebral discussions of issues that nonetheless back up all nine of the core "neoconservative" concepts underlying recent Russian political strategy. This suggests that the Russian government and television executives innovate to determine how best to use television to win over skeptical citizens to the Kremlin's point of view.