We Spend A Day With Putin’s Speechwriters

AS part of an ongoing quest to be at the peak of creative journalism, several WWN staff members were sent on an away program with some of the Russian government’s key PR people, including a pair of writers who worked on Vladimir Putin’s latest state of the nation speech.

Here’s what we learned from the Russian leader’s approach to addressing his subjects:

– You can say anything you want if you deflect blame away from yourself and onto those who oppose you. At this point we stopped our Russian counterparts and informed them that we were here to learn something that we didn’t already know from dealing with our own politicians.

– It’s important to stress that economic turmoil and hardships are not the fault of the ruling government. Instead, external forces and foreign powers are stalling recovery and hindering prosperity. Again, we stressed that we were here to learn, not be told something we already know.

– Writing lines that make the nation feel they’re pulling together to preserve their way of life against external forces is a powerful tool in manipulating a nation and clinging to power we were told, as we grew bored and began to scroll through our phone.

– A little ‘nuclear’ goes a long way, baby.

– Putin knows he can’t win this war, he’s just trying to bluster his way through it.

Our session was cut short after being informed of this point, as both of the scriptwriters we were speaking to came down with a sudden dose of falling out a window.