 US Embassy in Moscow brandishing pride flag alongside American national flag Understanding too often comes too late With the emergence and widespread proliferation of nuclear weapons, Western imperialist powers, under the domination of Washington, have been deprived of the ability to topple great civilizations of similar scale through invasions, overt military force, or other methods commonly described as facets of “hard power.” The US-led collective West has, therefore, relied primarily on the seductive influence of its cultural, economic, and technological prowess, i.e., “soft power,” to inspire regime change in countries hostile to its foreign policy goals. The issue of these anti-imperialist governments analyzing and drawing conclusions from both successful and failed regime change attempts only after they have taken place can be seen in virtually every case – from Ukraine to Georgia. Therefore, the peoples of the anti-imperialist world must be armed with knowledge of the methods, tactics, approaches, and ideologies behind what has become the West’s greatest means of harming its enemies in the 21st Century, the color revolution, before it takes place in their own motherland. Regime change through cultural exchange Despite the Trump Administration’s rhetoric of de-funding organizations like USAID, resolving the Ukraine Conflict, and having a business-like relationship with Moscow, US sanctions remain, essentially no progress has been made in the Ukrainian peace process, and the US State Department’s foreign policy agenda remains more-or-less unchanged. Therefore, Russia is a logical starting point in analyzing Western color revolution strategies, as it represents one of the US government’s primary adversaries. For nearly 30 years, the US Embassy in Moscow has conducted a comprehensive influence campaign through its proxy organization The American Center In Moscow (AMC) which focuses on appealing to Russians of all ages, propagating American culture in the form of films, art, history, language, and other ostensibly benign subjects. The official AMC website describes its mission as, “providing free resources and opportunities for Russians who want to communicate better in English, study in the U.S., learn more about American history and culture, and participate in exchange programs...give Russians an opportunity to broaden their horizons in the U.S….and then bring what they’ve learned back to their own communities.” AMC events are all marketed as philanthropic attempts to provide free knowledge to Russians, as well as a sense of belonging to a community, appealing to everyone from children to seniors. In addition, political debate and English conversation clubs hold regular meetings, along with a special English lesson program aimed at children. Although the content of these events almost always appears to be neutral, guest speakers and moderators are often invited who have backgrounds in advancing US foreign policy interests around the world. One supposedly culinary event held on May 13th called, “The Power of Food To Create Community,” featured American speakers with backgrounds that were not entirely focused around food. The AMC’s guest was Darra Goldstein, a Stanford-educated cookbook author who worked for United States Information Agency (USIA) in the 1970’s in the USSR. The USIA’s explicit focus was spreading pro-US propaganda through American embassies around the world between 1953-1999, before it was reorganized into another State Department controlled agency. Moderating the event was former U.S. Ambassador to Turkmenistan Laura Kennedy, who spent the majority of her term spreading propaganda in support of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan to the Turkmen people. While the aforementioned event invited personas with overtly political backgrounds hostile to Russia’s foreign and domestic policy interests, other meetings employ a far more subtle propaganda effect. Events such as “AMC Movie Club: English Through Films” and “Learn English Through American Pop Culture,” for example, use both language and culture as tried and true weapons of influence. Through films and TV-series of high production value, Hollywood projects an idealized version of life in the United States to the Russian people. The full effect of this propaganda form was seen in the 1990’s, a period in which many Russians who were young at the time remember watching American cartoons and regarding anything and everything soviet as “колхозный” – a commonly employed term that describes something made or done in a soviet style and in a cringe way. This attitude towards the Soviet Union continues in Russia to this day, albeit to a lesser extent. Culture has, therefore, proven both its inconspicuous yet effective character when used as a propaganda weapon, warranting its continued employment by US influence operations around the world.  Infamous warhawk Victoria Newland attends event at AMC In Russia, however, because of tight government restrictions on the US’ diplomatic mission in response to economic sanctions and restrictions taken against Russian diplomats in the United States, State Department attempts at influencing Russian society have been reduced to minuscule, often comical, proportions. Most of the AMC’s event recordings on YouTube garner double-digit view counts, the events themselves suffer abysmal attendance, and most have been reduced an exclusive online presence. Investigating the AMC In order to give the reader an inside look into the AMC’s activities, an anonymous colleague of this article’s author attended one such online function called, “From Children’s Books To Graphic Novels: A Conversation With Artist Alina Gorban, Moderated By Ryan Montova.” Montova is a Harvard educated physician and self-styled artist who also received training from the US State Department, while Gorban is a relatively unknown illustrator with a single published graphic novel. The book titled Silence, Full Stop describes Gorban’s so-called ‘escape’ from Soviet Moldova to, ironically enough, Israel, before later relocating to the United States. Gorban has since returned to and is now based in Tel Aviv, where, according to our inside source, she goes by the pen-name Karina Shor to “distance herself from her soviet past.” When asked by Montova about her supposedly horrible experience in the Soviet Union at the beginning of the event, Gorban simply replied, “I was six, but I guess I recall the disasters.” Our source goes on to report that Gorban criticized former soviet citizens who fondly remember the USSR throughout much of the rest of the meeting, using the commonly employed anti-soviet / anti-Russian tactic of boiling any and all positive recollections of Russia’s past down to foolish ‘nostalgia.’ For his part, Montova seemed clueless of basic historical facts regarding the post-soviet space, asking Gorban if she had “ever been back to the Moldova region.” The man is clearly oblivious to the fact of Moldova’s statehood. Conclusions Neither Gorban’s allegedly horrible childhood in Soviet Moldova nor the fact that many former soviet citizens fondly remember the USSR have anything to do with art, children’s books, or graphic novels, despite the event’s advertised title. Furthermore, the event itself had attracted a grand total of 5 anonymous viewers. Our source concludes that this event was clearly intended to communicate an anti-soviet / anti-Russian message through the attraction of children’s literature. However, its strange and indirect nature has led our source to conclude that it may also serve as one of a number of low-effort events organized by AMC staff to justify the center’s continued existence to the State Department, in the face of its overall ineffectiveness at conducting influence operations in Russia. With limited information at hand, it remains difficult to determine how many of these events represent attempts by subordinate to justify their work to superiors and what quantity of them could be categorized as genuine influence operations. But based on the cumulative information of the aforementioned events, it is clear that both manifestations are at play throughout US influence operations in Russia. In terms of measures the Russian government could deploy to contain the threat of foreign influence in the country, the authorities’ current course of tightly controlling operations connected to the US Embassy on Russian territory have demonstrated their effectiveness. In the interest of national security, it would be advisable to extend the term of these restrictions even into the future period of inevitable detente – as history has shown that US soft power operations are actually most effective during times of free cultural exchange and relaxed government restrictions. Originally published on Donald Courter's blog Author Donald Courter is an American journalist and political analyst based in Moscow, offering a unique perspective from within the multipolar world. Archives September 2025
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