Translated material
Machu and Mickey Mouse
Lessons to a friend Vladimir from a friend Silvio
April 2008: Putin-President and Berlusconi just won the election.
Machu and Mickey Mouse. Black turtleneck, black jacket, black glasses, black three-wheeled Harley-Davidson, words addressed to bikers who call themselves “night wolves”: “Brothers, how good that you do not forget the heroics of past years”, a photo next to their leader, Russian heroes, these shots from the PR-action of the end of August. TV channels. Before that, there was a black sea, a diving suit and amphora, before that Seliger, where the prime minister bent the pans and climbed the steep wall. “Putin has learned a lot from the Prime Minister of Italy Berlusconi,” the Western media state. What and how - studied The New Times
In September 2010, at the last political forum in Yaroslavl, Silvio Berlusconi said that he was going to finance research to increase the duration of human life. Putin reacted: "Will we live up to 120 years?" “It looks like yes,” answered Berlusconi. - But keep in mind, this is only an average age. I was told that the leaders will be much longer. " "That is, we will be at least 120 years old by the Prime Ministers?" - specified Putin. “I think it will not work,” a friend Silvio sighed, who is 16 years older than Vladimir’s friend, “the prime minister’s work is very difficult, you get tired of it.”
The premieres flirted: neither that nor the other is not only tired of their “work”, but, on the contrary, they try to stay in power with all their might and means. And although the 74-year-old Italian leader assures his voters that in 2013 he will not go to the elections and prepares the successor, and the 58-year-old national leader of Russia has not yet decided what to do with his partner, both of them use similar PR methods, showing their electors masculinity, sexuality and willingness to endlessly fulfill the role of the fathers of nations. 
Understandable language
“My heart was bleeding when I had to get into the pockets of the Italians to save the economy,” this recent statement by Berlusconi caused a stormy discussion in Italy. Touch the hearts of voters with a tearful phrase, speak with the people in an understandable language is one of the prescriptions of the Italian prime minister.
His Russian friend learned this method: “Listen, what do you want me to eat the earth from a pot with flowers? And swore on the blood? The fundamental foundations of the Russian economy today are such that for this (denomination. - The New Times) there are no prerequisites ... ” - this was what Vladimir Putin to the question of journalists answered in February 2008 (on the eve of the crisis).
“The Berlusconi is not the result of the work of the PR team, he does not need it,” says journalist Ida Dominijanni, who has been specializing in the analysis of the image of the prime minister in the newspaper Il Manifesto. - Our prime minister is a communicator by nature. He does not need to advise what to say, he knows very well. " Berlusconi turned politics into show business, adds Italian publicist Marco Dinelli: “This is the first postmodern politician in Italy, who used his image to get the approval of the masses. He created the image of a charismatic leader in excellent physical shape, with a smooth, polished plastic face and a radiant smile. ”
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Steps to Success: First
Berlusconi began with the media: today his Mediaset empire owns three private channels, and three state RAI *** radiotelevisione Italiana, Italian public television. They are controlled by his government. The processing of mass consciousness was successful: television of the Berlusconi era, broadcasting the images of the prime minister and luxurious girls of the escort, quickly took possession of the minds of voters. “The average Italian today wants to be like Berlusconi, and the average Italian dreams of using the prime minister to take a place in politics or on television, as many have already done,” says Marco Dinelli.
This was the first lesson that Silvio taught a Russian friend. I liked the lesson. It is no coincidence that the people of Berlusconi entered the media imperia of the Kovalchuk brothers, friends of GDP since the time of the country cooperative "Lake". This media holding includes, in addition to “Little things”, four major television channels: TNT, REN-TV, Home, Petersburg-Fifth Canal, as well as 25%+1 promotion of Channel One, Izvestia and Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper. The last acquisition of Kovalchuks is the STS channel: they own 25.2% of the STS-Media shares. In addition, the two main Goskanals, as in Italy, are also controlled by the prime minister. Result: Over the 11 years, the once plain-up Lt. Col. KGB found the image of the Russian macho, about which they began to compose songs like “I want Putin” and expose her chest, tearing on himself T-shirts with the inscription “Torn for Putin!”
The best friend of the bikers (with the leader of the "night wolves" by surgeon, August 2011)
Step two
Berlusconi, privatizing television, decided that he could give a damn about public foundations. Stories about the shameless orgies on the villa of the Italian prime minister fill the pages of Italian magazines and newspapers, the Berlusconi protege, whose prices are also regularly published by the media, enter the municipalities, the government and parliament. So, the 33-year-old Mara Cartane model migrated to the chair of the Minister of equal rights and opportunities directly from the covers of glossy magazines and glamorous television programs. “We are observing the birth of a new regime, in which mass television of a low shirt intervenes in a serious policy,” says Marco Dinelli. “As a result, girls from show business, from private television channels, second-plan actresses come to politics-not only in large, like Cartania, but also in the regional.” And this does not interfere with the ratings of Berlusconi at all: the masses want spectacles - they receive them.
PR PR PR of Berlusconi also use these lessons, but taking into account the Russian specifics, where everything related to the people of power is shrouded in secrets, conspiracy and rumors. If the wife and mistresses of Berlusconi give quite frank interviews to the press, then practically nothing is known about the personal life of the Russian prime minister. Only the Internet is gossiping and sorting out photos: the State Duma deputy, the past world champion in rhythmic gymnastics Alina Kabaeva, ex-spienes, and now the TV presenter and one of the leaders of the Prochrevsky “young Russia” Anna Chapman and the pretty fashion model Yana Lapikova, who suddenly became a “personal”-a personal photographer of the premiere. But the rumors also work on the same image: “When I saw your two girls-deputies on the Russian television channel who giggled during the State Duma session, Kabaeva and Khorkin thought, it’s necessary, just like in Italy,” says Marco Dinelli.
Tomer "Three -Coard" (August 2011)
Life and introvert
“Of course, Berlusconi affects Putin as the eldest both by age and political experience,” says political scientist Stanislav Belkovsky. - Like Berlusconi, Putin is trying to position herself young, beautiful and healthy. But this is not as effective as ten years ago. ” Hence - experiments in the field of cosmetology, demonstrating a naked torso on horseback on a horse, training with Olympic judo champions and voyage on a motorcycle with bikers.
“Putin is an artificial politician synthesized in a political technological laboratory,” Belkovsky is convinced. “Besides by nature, he has not been as pleasing as Berlusconi to demonstrate his emotions to the public unnaturally.” The Italian prime minister is never preparing for his press conferences, and for any public event with Putin’s participation, as you know, questions and answers are preparing in advance for a long time. The temperament of Berlusconi is natural, PR technologists pay attention, and he behaves, as a typical Italian-does not disdain either with rumbling jokes, nor doubtful steps from a political point of view. So, at a press conference with the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, Berlusconi suddenly poked a picture of men and bare muses hanging in the hall: “Such were“ Bung-Bung ”in 1811. A guy playing the harp, Mariano Apicell, and this is myself ”*** Apichella-a musician, a friend of Berlusconi,“ Bung-Bung ”-that is the name of the orgies that the Italian prime minister arranged on his villa in Arcore near Milan .. Putin once (at a meeting with another Israeli politician) also spoke out in a similar spirit:“ Spend a similar spirit to your own spirit President! It turned out to be a very powerful man: ten women raped! We all envy him, ”the Kommersant newspaper ** **“ Kommersant ”, on October 19, 2006, quoted him. But this leak, as they said then, did not cause enthusiasm for him: they always remember the dubious Bon Mot type“ to urinate in the toilet ”.
However, Italian journalists say: if it comes to real elections, then Putin can become much less careful. And they remind of Romano Prodi, the main rival of Berlusconi over the past 10 years, which the Italians received the nickname Mortadella - this is an Italian inexpensive boiled sausage. “The image of the Berlusconi-Machi acts very much on the minds,” Ida Dominidzhanny believes. “Behind this attraction is a crisis of the stronger sex, a lack of real men, which is commonly believed in society.”
Change of image
However, political strategist Marat Gelman with colleagues from the southern country is ready to argue. “No one doubts that the Italian prime minister is a womanizer, so people like any plot on this topic,” says Helman. - Putin cannot afford to fully exploit this topic. She is unnatural for him. He is still a man of Soviet sourdough. ” The impossibility of acting as Don Juan Putin compensates, according to Gelman, frankly boyish antics: “Wandering fires with water from the plane, ringing animals in the reserves or getting amphora from the bottom of the sea, Putin behaves like a fairy -tale hero, and perhaps perceives all this as a kind of game. It seems that from the category of politicians he went into the ranks of pop characters, such as Marilyn Monroe or Mickey Mouse. But he and the audience is obvious that this is a staging. ”
The head of the Effective Policy Fund, Gleb, Pavlovsky sees a alarming subtext in PR PR, PR: “Two years ago, Putin acted not in the frivolous image of Berlusconi, but in the form of a person of power, which all the time creates news, is in a focus of attention.” According to Pavlovsky’s observations, Putin changed this line relatively recently-since the spring of 2010 *** according to the Levada Center polls, it was in the spring, in April 2010, Putin's confidence rating began to decline steadily: 50% in April, 46% in May, 41% in October, etc., up to 39% of the current summer .. after that, after this, the current summer is about the current summer. His trips on a horse in Altai with a naked torso (August 2009), a trip to Lada through Russia (August-2010) and, finally, diving for amphoras (August-2011). “This, of course, is no longer the style of the former Putin, but to a greater extent the style of Berlusconi,” the political scientist concludes. - And this Ber admonization, apparently, is associated with Putin’s uncertainty: is he interesting for the population as a person of power? ” 
That is why he is trying to offer himself as a character of the yellow press: gives an interview with an American magazine for hunters and fishermen (Outdoorlife, May-2011), where he declares that he is not shy about a photo shoot with a naked torso, or sings with the stars of Hollywood Blueberry Hill (December-2010), etc. If in 1999, at the start of the presidential campaign, the PR technologists created Putin the image of a kind of Lenka Queen *** a character from the song of Bulat Okudzhava.-the leader of the courtyard and a defender from bad boys from a neighboring gateway, now the image has to be changed. The boys grew up, and a big brother rather corresponds to the style of the big dad. In addition, the appearance of a tandem’s partner also affected the image, Pavlovsky believes when the politics itself was largely in the competence of Dmitry Medvedev. “Putin had to look for something else for himself, and he ducked from a high political shore to the lake of mass rumors, shoes, jokes,” says Pavlovsky. - So girls with T -shirts “tear for Putin” appear, calendars with half -naked fans of the prime minister and the like things that people are eagerly hanging about. Putin wants to survive this period of reducing interest in him as a politician, in the bottom layer of yellow journalism. ”
But such actions sometimes give the exact opposite result. “History with amphoras is threatening Putin’s electorate,” says Stanislav Belkovsky. “It was obvious to almost everyone that this was a staging.” “It is evident that Putin’s political technological machine has seriously degraded over the past 12 years - both due to the washing of serious specialists from there, and due to the fact that this machine was universal to work in real political competition,” Belkovsky is convinced. Gleb Pavlovsky, who worked on Putin's first presidential campaign, offers a different explanation - the Russian prime minister could simply “lose the prospect, the idea of the future, including the future of his tandem with the current president,” and gives quite concrete advice: PR should be subordinated to political tasks, and Putin’s environment should be understood. “If you compete with Medvedev in an open field during the presidential election, this is one image. If you go ahead of the third term - another. If you support Medvedev’s candidacy - the third. ” All three options are possible, the political scientist says, but they all require different PR strategies. If there is no answer to the main questions, then fear arises, the political scientist believes. And fear is a bad political consultant and image maker.
At a crossroads *
The irony of fate and the Italian friend Silvio are going through the best of times today. “For a year now, as we are observing the sunset of Berlusconi,” says Marco Ligas, director of the Italian newspaper Il Manifesto Sardo. - He no longer manages to apply the charm to which he owes in many ways his success in the last elections. The prime minister is far from so confident in himself. The feeling that he does not believe himself. " The reason, according to Ligas, is in sexual scandals, in aggravation of problems with justice and, as a result, a decrease in confidence in the prime minister in society and a split in the Berlusconi's own party “the people of freedom”. Hence the statements that in the next parliamentary elections (in 2013) he will not put his candidacy for the post of prime minister. What are Putin's plans are still a secret.
What Berlusconi said:
• “I am the most pursued person in the history of the country.”
• “My secretary said that the last week I worked 17 hours daily, made 32 phone calls, participated in 23 meetings. The press should respect more like me, sacrificing his personal time in the interests of the people. ”
• "Enough! Too many businessmen divorced in politics! ”
• “I am in great shape, strong, like a 20-year-old young man.”
• "I'm not sick, moreover, I am Superman."
• "I am the best manager in Europe, and in the USA I give in to Bill Gates only."
• “Ruby is the granddaughter of Mubarak, and my intervention saved Italy from an international conflict” (regarding his rescue from the police of a 17-year-old Ruby Moroccan, with whom Berlusconi had an intimate connection).
What Putin said:
• “Remember, I blurted out that we will wet there somewhere? I was somewhere on the road, flew to St. Petersburg and was in upset feelings. A friend asks me - what are you so sad? I say-blurted out something, apparently, inappropriately. It is unpleasant, I should not get into such a level, so grind in the tongue, chat. ”
• “The price that has rolled out, it is prohibitive. For this money I would eat your president ”(regarding the price of the rental of the Russian fleet base in Sevastopol).
• “We [Russia] do not know how to stand with a gesture” (in response to the replica of Barack Obama: “Russia is still standing one foot in the future, and the other in the past”).
• “We sleep in turn. Everything is under control, do not hesitate ”(the answer to the question of the direct line with citizens of the Russian Federation:“ Who controls the country at the time when you and the president of Russia are sleeping? ”).
• “Russia would probably have not done the next 100 years what we are doing now, or maybe I would never have done” (about the winter Olympiad in 2014 in Sochi).