Strings Attached: Russia’s Soft Power

Russia has long understood that cultural prestige can achieve what tanks cannot. Ballet tours, orchestras, Olympic champions, chess prodigies, and international “friendship” festivals are marketed as gestures of exchange and goodwill yet often serve as instruments of state power - projecting grace while concealing repression, disinformation, and war. When raw military force provokes resistance abroad, the Kremlin leans on these softer emissaries to humanize its image, purchase legitimacy, and blunt accountability for its crimes. 

This panel will pull back the curtain on this machinery of influence. It will examine how art, sport, and scholarship have been weaponized to sway public opinion, justify aggression, and reshape narratives from Moscow to Washington. 

Dmitry Valuev is a prominent Russian-American pro-democracy and anti-war activist based in Washington, D.C. He serves as co-founder and President of Russian America for Democracy in Russia (RADR) - a nonprofit organization dedicated to building democratic communities among Russian émigrés, supporting Ukrainian resistance, and aiding political prisoners. Dmitry also leads Freedom Birds for Ukraine, a volunteer-driven campaign that mobilizes diaspora resources to deliver drones and humanitarian aid directly to Ukrainians, ensuring every donation reaches the field. A lifelong community organizer and speaker, he champions diaspora activism as a force to uphold democracy, support resistance, and defend freedom in exile. 

Maryna Lvovska is a Ukrainian cultural campaigner known for her public protests against Russian soft-power events worldwide. Lvovska has been on the front lines of demonstrations that challenge Russian ballet tours, state-linked film festivals, and other cultural productions that, she argues, white-wash Moscow’s aggression. Her recent denunciation of a so-called “State Ballet Theatre of Ukraine” touring the U.S. - which she identified as a Russian-organized enterprise trading on a false Ukrainian brand - exemplifies her determination to expose cultural disinformation and to block stages from becoming platforms for the aggressor.