The well-known public figure Alexei Navalny announced on March 5 that a so-called "Good propaganda machine" should be created in Russia, which would be a counterweight to the state propaganda machine. Later, Navalny published a special manifesto about his new brainchild, which he called "Mega-hyper-propaganda machine of good."
Briefly describing the content of the manifesto, it turns out that most of the Russian people, according to Navalny, are confused by the state media, and therefore cannot understand the need for democratic changes. The people need to be educated, to open their eyes. And for this, it is necessary to create that very kind propaganda machine, that is, a network of agitators-activists (in the future, no less than one hundred thousand people), who should disseminate information about the actual state of affairs in the country in any way possible. Thus, according to Navalny, after a while the overwhelming majority of Russians will realize the negative essence of the current government, headed by V. V. Putin and will demand political change.
The manifest clearly states what kind of information needs to be disseminated. Navalny focuses on two main areas: corruption, which has really taken on a huge scale, and the crimes of law enforcement agencies. As a typical example, he mentions the sad story that thundered throughout the country that happened in Kazan, where sadistic police tortured a detainee to death. Navalny assigns the main responsibility for this terrible incident and for other negative phenomena in the country to V. V. Putin. That there is only an eloquent passage from the manifesto: “In Kazan, militiamen raped with a bottle of champagne and killed a man. And no one incurred either political or criminal responsibility. And this happened because Putin from the police only needs to cover the stuffing in the elections. That's what it costs us 61% of United Russia in the city of Kazan."
Of course, it is necessary to wage a decisive fight against both corruption and lawlessness. But Navalny's claims about the "darkness" of the overwhelming majority of the Russian people in need of education can hardly be called anything other than dubious. The Russians are aware of the negative phenomena, and they by no means idealize the current government at all levels, including the President of Russia. This is eloquently evidenced by the fact that V. V. Putin has dropped markedly. And it is difficult to imagine that in the era of the Internet, the state propaganda machine could deceive tens of millions of people so much that they lost the ability to critically perceive reality.
Another thing is that the majority of Russians do not trust the activities of opposition leaders, including Navalny, too. If only because the opposition has not yet come up with a clear and precise program of action, limiting itself to endless repetition of slogans such as: "Everything is very bad, everywhere there is one negative, Putin is to blame for everything."
