Findings of the Study

For more than two decades, national branding has attracted researchers from various fields, such as marketing, communications, public relations and international research. Nations have its own images. From time to time, nations can even have competing images, as Russia may be an

“aggressor” and a “peacekeeper”. However, when a certain image of the nation prevails, it becomes more difficult to change (Kotler & Gertner 2002; Gudjonsson 2005). Using branding technologies to change the image and reputation of a nation is the very essence of national branding.

One of the tasks of public diplomacy is precisely the formation of a positive image of the state abroad, can be considered as an extremely useful tool for foreign policy activity. This direction of public diplomacy can also be used to discredit geopolitical competitors in the international arena or as a means of articulating one's own position on a wide range of issues on the current agenda in the context of "information wars." For modern politics, the fact that foreign ministries of different countries create their own accounts in social networks, microblogging

important role in the international arena, but also countries with a rather modest economic and military potential, now resort to such a step.

In this thesis it was attempted to investigate what images are promoted by Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in contrast to foreign media. In this work it is tried to fill the gap and extend nation branding to SNS. Moreover, it is believed that nation branding delivered through social media can alter the image of country.

It was chosen to focus on Russia because of continuing criticism worldwide about Russian foreign policies. The Ukrainian crisis in which Russia is largely involved gave birth to a huge wave of information war of the West against Russia, which is increasingly called the "new cold war".

Attacks on the image of Russia are very frank and aggressive: it is impossible to count the number of accusations of imperialism, militarism and expansion towards Russia.

The problem of building a positive image of Russia abroad is very important. For the first time the issue of forming a positive political image of the country was raised on June 28, 2000 in the Foreign Policy Concept. Given his negative image, it is assumed that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would be absorbed in an attempt to change the image of Russia around the world. Moreover, given the fact that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia has quite active accounts in social media, it is assumed that tweets and reports published within three months will provide sufficient data for the analysis of images promoted by Russia.

This study was aimed to investigate the manner in which Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs employs social media in their image building activities. The study also demonstrates that analyzing public diplomacy content enables one to identify the national image being promoted. It aimed to identify the main themes of social media accounts of Russian foreign ministry in Facebook and Twitter. This analysis was qualitative, and thematic analysis was used to identify

significant themes in all Facebook publications and tweets published during sampling period on the English Facebook and Twitter accounts of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The analysis of social media accounts of Russian MFA has revealed three main themes.

The first was Russia’s attempt to tell the audience about its positive role in Ukrainian crisis. During the sampling period, Ukraine was the most frequently mentioned region in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Facebook and Twitter accounts. The high visibility of this region and the frequent mentioning of Minsk agreements and situation over Donbass serves to demonstrate that settlement of this crisis has been important for Russian government and its foreign policy goal.

The second theme was also frequently seen in through the posts in Facebook and Twitter account along with Ukrainian crisis. Second theme includes instances in which Russia attempted to regain its reputation as a world peacemaker. An important component of this theme was the attempt by Russian government to rebrand itself as a beacon of democracy by settling Syrian conflict and other issues in the Middle East.

The third theme that was identified in social media account by Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is its attempt to project other countries’ policy versus Russian one. Russian government tries to deliver to the world a portrait of America as a “puppet master” in contrast to “peacekeeper”

itself. America’s and Ukrainian’s foreign policies were the most frequently mentioned in this topic.

Moreover, posts that include criticism about foreign countries and its policy towards Russia, such as imposing new sanctions, blocking Russia’s initiatives on the world arena were satirically written.

For example, the president of Ukraine Petr Poroshenko was called “president of peace”. FBI agents were accused of spoiling an expensive parquet during its unexpected raiders to Russian consulate in San Francisco.

In summary, it is found out that Russia tries to rebrand itself as a peacemaker that plays a very constructive role in world conflict settlements. Moreover, in attempting to rebrand itself, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia projects other countries’ foreign policies in contrast to itself.

Russia’ image is delivered as to be committed to democracy and building meaningful relationships with other countries. Interestingly, there was one element that can be seen across all themes and that is Russia as a part of global community. It is believed that Russia is currently attempting to take its place in the international community regardless its disputable policy decisions. This was made evidence by Russian involvement in Syrian war.

These elements are undoubtedly not new as Russia has always tried to take its place on the world arena. But with developing of Internet and digital diplomacy, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia has a chance to reach a larger audience. By engaging with its global audiences, and listening to their comments and criticism, Russia can further evaluate whether its nation branding campaigns are effective and if not, identify which elements have been rejected by followers.

Further research can be aimed to investigate account audiences’ reaction and their interactivity to consider Russian digital diplomacy’s effectiveness in social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.