How Russia’s ‘shock jocks’ covered the Queen’s funeral

Modern Russia is a propaganda state, but not in the same way as the Soviet Union. The Kremlin has squeezed out any independent media, but all the same, the coverage of the Queen’s funeral demonstrated how this is a post-modern propaganda state, in which competing ‘narrative entrepreneurs’ try to make their mark and please the boss.

As I have written before, the official line on the Queen’s death was strikingly respectful, taking its lead from Vladimir Putin’s own message of condolences. There were some spiteful and critical comments, primarily on social media, but even these were then shouted down in what seems to have been a genuine public outcry.

Although Putin claimed that he would have been too busy to attend anyway, that he was one of the few heads of state – along with Belarus’s Alexander Lukashenko and Myanmar’s Lt General Myint Swe – not invited either to attend or send a representative did hit a nerve.