Last October, I had the honor of speaking at the first digital marketing conference organized in Russia. Speaking with our colleagues in Moscow, I had became aware of the potential of “bringing the State to the Web.” Well, it’s been happening bit by bit. Here’s the latest from President Medvedev on YouTube. Too bad I don’t speak Russian, so I can’t understand what he’s saying. While the subtitles are in Cyrillic, the headlines are in English. So the page still gives me a sense of the various touch points President Medvedev’s office is creating. Here’s a look at some personal photos from the President’s album. (Notice he’s a Mac user :-)) And here’s entertaining animation for children.
I had often wondered about the politics of speaking in your mother tongue when addressing people as the Head of State. Switching to another language can sometimes be a graceful gesture to that country’s people. Sometimes it may mean straying away from your national identity. So, I don’t think Medvedev’s office would create an English version of the page to reach a broader audience. Kremlin speaks Russian. But it’ll be interesting to see if a situation arises where Medvedev chooses to do a video in English, speaking to American audiences on matters concerning the two countries. Until then, we’ll go brush up on our Russian.
