“Schizoids”, “warriors” and “lovers” – Newspaper Kommersant No. 24 (7469) of 02/09/2023

On Wednesday, ANO “Dialogue” and the Expert Institute for Social Research (EISI) held a meeting of the expert council on the topic “New Wave Policies”. As the organizers explained, their goal is to develop a strategy for positioning politicians in social networks: it was on this topic that experts and current deputies mainly discussed during the event. In addition, psychologist-profiler Vadim Voitenko spoke to the participants, who spoke, among other things, about the differences between an epileptoid and a schizoid, and political consultant Yevgeny Minchenko, who explained how politicians should use the archetypes of “child”, “warrior” and “lover”.

Andrey Tsepelev, the deputy general director of Dialogue, immediately stated without false modesty that the expert councils of his organization claim to become a kind of “think tanks” for developing certain strategies and methods. “The topic of the council is “New Wave Politics” – how politicians build their public image in the conditions of a new information reality: the total use of social networks, the agenda of a special military operation (SVO), the high demand of citizens for openness and feedback from the authorities,” explained Mr. Tsepelev.

Within the framework of the meeting, several master classes and expert discussions were held, the audience and participants of which were representatives of the press services of federal and regional authorities, experts and several State Duma deputies. Recall that ANO Dialog is actually responsible for the work of state bodies in social networks, and EISI experts are regularly involved in various projects of the internal political bloc of the presidential administration.

At the first expert session, EISI representative Daria Kislitsyna stated that if in the conditions of the “old normality” it was enough for politicians to be close to people and interact with them, now, after the coronavirus, the start of the NWO and partial mobilization, this is no longer enough. Now politicians, if they want to be successful, must show a high degree of adaptability and quickly understand those areas in which they were not professionals before. “The speed of decision-making in situations where you used to be professionally incompetent is important. Previously, it didn’t matter if the governor understood where to get oxygen from, but everything changed during the pandemic, ”the expert gave an example. Another positive example, already from the time of the SVO, for Ms. Kislitsyna was the State Duma deputy from United Russia, Ekaterina Stenyakina, who took nursing courses in order to be able to help the wounded. “And this is not a PR story,” the representative of the EISI assured, but, after thinking, she added: “Although this is also good for PR.” And she concluded her speech with the idea that “new wave politicians” are like a self-learning neural network that itself generates unique management decisions.

Political consultant Evgenia Stulova, who spoke next, expressed the opinion that Russia is now actually divided into several parts. The first is Russia in the capital, which is in the “denial stage” and, “sipping smoothies”, hopes that the situation will “resolve” by itself. The second is Russia deep, which has felt the NWO and is “in the stage of bargaining” with the state. Finally, the third and fourth – Russia is at war and Russia has left. “It is Russia at war that has an image of the future. They can even build some kind of political system right now,” the expert said, adding that this part of society is “in a stage of anger.” Therefore, according to her, all politicians, building their image, must understand which of the four Russias they want to influence.

Profiler Vadim Voitenko received a separate speech at the meeting. He presented a system in which all people are evaluated as various combinations of seven types of character, among which, in particular, are hysteroid, epileptoid and schizoid. “What traits of paranoia do you see? That’s right, no accessories. Just a business pen,” Mr. Voitenko explained his system, showing a photograph of the State Duma Vice Speaker Anna Kuznetsova. And he added that if, for example, one of those present by occupation needs to like an hysteroid (who is prone to self-presentation), then he needs to be emotive (that is, kind and sympathetic).

In the middle of the day, the event was attended by several State Duma deputies, who shared their experience in managing social networks with the participants. So, United Russia Olga Zanko said that the response from subscribers should be sought, for example, through drawings for the Day of Family, Love and Fidelity, and posts in memory of the dead members of the SVO. She also thanked her party and State Duma colleague Alexander Khinshtein for his public reports on work with voters, from whom she takes an example.

Sardana Avksentyeva, deputy chairman of the New People faction, admitted that she initially gained subscribers by sharing culinary recipes on her social networks. And a member of the LDPR faction, Stanislav Naumov, especially praised the Telegram channel of the speaker of the State Duma, United Russia Vyacheslav Volodin. True, a little later, the liberal democrat said that “new wave politicians” should not engage in “narcissism and narcissism”, creating and promoting their own publics, but go to existing popular communities and communicate with people there.

Alexander Khinshtein did not quite agree with this. “If the basis of the channel is that people have the opportunity to directly contact their representative, then this channel is needed!” – said United Russia and hinted that Mr. Naumov, apparently, is less important direct contact with people, since he was elected to the Duma on the list, and Alexander Khinshtein – in a single-mandate district. United Russia was also supported by Ms. Avksentieva, who said that you can’t unite all regions and that social networks are the only way to directly contact voters: “I don’t have the physical strength or time to go to public sites.”

Finally, towards the end of the event, a master class for its participants was given by political strategist Yevgeny Minchenko. He called on all politicians to consciously form their image, for which they must always clearly understand which of the archetypes they want to use. After that, the expert presented his list of these archetypes, drawn both from the experience of other researchers and from his own analysis of certain politicians, and immediately invited those present to try them on for themselves. As a result, the members of the expert council on the team of the political strategist either obediently closed and opened their eyes to imagine themselves as a “child”, then clenched their fists in search of an inner “warrior”, then relaxed their hips, feeling like “lovers”, then rubbed their palms to believe that that they are “creators”. True, which of them is ready to use this knowledge in practice remains unknown.

Andrey Vinokurov