(From a report at the International scientific conference "Actual problems of the construction and development of the Union State").1
Research shows that the relevance of the subject of the Union State in the Belarusian and Russian information space is increasing every year.
The media associative array of the Belarusian-Russian integration includes a constructive working agenda related to specific projects (union programs, import substitution, national security, economy) and their implementation.
Distinct converging points of union narratives were formed: a shared politics of memory of the Great Patriotic War; the desire to develop Eurasian integration, interregional ties. The associative accents of the perception of Belarusians by citizens of the Russian Federation that have developed today (based on media content analysis and expert surveys) are noteworthy: "they have saved the economy", "they did not allow theft", "purity", "absence of Russophobia", "the sacred attitude of Belarusians to the Great Victory", "high integration efficiency", "responsibility for regional policy", "preservation of traditional values", "internal political stability".
A positive trend is the perception of the integration of Belarus and Russia inside the Union State as an integral element of the common geopolitical strategy of both countries and an effective format for uniting our peoples in the face of unfavorable trends of today.
For example, over the past years, the dynamics of security challenges of our allied states has increased significantly. The escalation of military threats at the borders, the commission of sabotage and terrorist acts unimaginable in terms of the degree of cynicism occurs with a simultaneous increase of aggression in the information field and in the sphere of meanings.
The emerging historical, worldview, and political-ideological discourse of Western states is aimed at suppressing and "canceling" ideologies and concepts equally shared and revered by both Belarus and Russia.
In these conditions, the ideological and informational support of the Belarusian-Russian integration requires much greater consistency and concentration.
It is vital to develop meaningful and coordinated approaches to the protection of common values and historical truth, as well as the formation of principled and reasoned messages from the outside, denoting the subjectivity of the Union State, its consistency and high gravitational potential.
Based on the totality of the results of studies conducted in our countries of social trends and requests, it is possible to propose the following model of external and internal ideological positioning of the Union State:
1. The civilizational paradigm of the Union State consists in belonging to a single East Slavic world based on the historical proximity of the allied peoples, self-sufficiency to acquire the status of a civilizational pole, ready to scale and develop integration projects.
2. The self-perception of the Union State is aimed at addressing the origins and traditions of our peoples, readiness to awake reserves of historical memory to transmit to generations an original cultural code based on ancient human values.
3. The attitude towards other peoples in the paradigm of the Union State is based on the principles of openness and peacefulness, while being transformed towards "multidirectional tracks" in relation to friendly and unfriendly peoples, respectively. The latter are subject to a policy of deterrence and, if necessary, asymmetric counteraction.
4. The Union State's awareness of the common history is transformed towards an objective reassessment of each of the historical stages through the prism of their influence on building the Union future. The formula of a common history was pronounced by the President of the Republic of Belarus A.G. Lukashenko during his address at the forum "This is OUR History" on September 17, 2022: "In alliance with the East Slavic neighbors, the Belarusian lands developed. Ancient Russia, the Russian Empire, and the USSR. And in the arms of the West, we were there more than once, in these arms we were destroyed, we decayed as a nation." In general, this formulation can be applied to the entire post-Soviet space.
5. The quintessence of the common country mission of the Union State can be formulated as "development in spite of pressure and aggression, preservation and enhancement of historical truth and human values for their subsequent rooting in a post-conflict future."
Therefore, today, the basis is being formed for the formulation of common ideological concepts that fully meet national interests of both allied countries. On this path, we still have to overcome a number of problems of both external and internal nature. The main ways for joint work of all parties involved is to replicate and convey these messages to the general world community both through political statements (as part of participation in international events, press conferences and forums, during appeals to the peoples of unfriendly countries) and in a less public way - through joint scientific research, educational and intercultural communication, channels of expert diplomacy.
The argument for promoting and scaling up the union's initiatives will be success stories in various fields that we will have to create in the near future.
1Punchenko, V. N. Problems of information and ideological support of the Belarusian-Russian integration in the context of new challenges // Actual problems of the construction and development of the Union State: materials of the International scientific-practical conference (Moscow) / Ed. by: E. V. Afanasyeva, D. B. Kravchenko, A. V. Turov [et al.]. Moscow: Izvestia Publishing House; Secretariat of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union of Belarus and Russia. pp. 75-78.