A N A LY S I S DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS LIMITATIONS OF ANTI-WAR MESSAGING ORIENTED AT RUSSIANS Series“Russian Crisis”. Policy paper#2 The first six months of the war showed that the Putin regime’s system of communication with the loyal to him Russian-speaking public in Russia and around the world was much better prepared for war than many thought. The Kremlin has been preparing its loyal audience for the war (or something similar) for many years. Its priorities were clear: to fight for the minds of dissent­ers was less important, whereas all available energy and means were used to maintain control over the loyal audience. Fyodor Krasheninnikov September 2022 After 2014, Putin has worked in a targeted way only with Western counter-elites including outright fringe figures as well, not so much promoting himself and his ideas(which he simply does not have) as trying to split the West­ern democracies.