Digital diplomacy pratices of the Russian Federation under Putin: Ministry of Foreign Affairs Twitter (X) example

Developments in digital technologies have become an important factor affecting our daily lives in a wide range of fields from education to health, economy to international relations. Its prominent use, especially in international public policies, has been effective in the transformation in the understanding of diplomacy. Digital diplomacy is favorable in terms of strategic communication with the international public. In this context, states create their public diplomacy message through various social media channels in a way that can appeal to a wide audience. Public diplomacy is an increasingly necessary practice for countries. Because the ability of countries to use their soft power in a functional way and to gain superiority over other actors in the international arena in this context has become dependent on a successful public diplomacy practice. Indeed, in international relations, even in cases where the law is ignored, the reaction of global public opinion can put pressure on governments. In this respect, public diplomacy activities in the form of explanations for the foreign policy behavior of states are important. This is also the case in Russia, which was selected as a sample country in the study. Russia is one of the countries where the country's image is negatively affected due to its interventionist attitude in foreign policy. In this context, it tries to prevent this situation with its digital public diplomacy activities. However, the structure of digital channels suitable for disinformation brings along the disadvantages as well as the positive opportunities offered by digital diplomacy. The continuation of propaganda and public diplomacy practices in the same channels creates a disadvantageous situation for Russia, as in every country. In this context, effective use of social media is essential for countries. In particular, Twitter (X) is used as an important tool for digital diplomacy. Russia, with its many official government accounts, also maintains a quite active digital diplomacy on Twitter. In this study, Russia's digital public diplomacy practices are discussed and the digital diplomacy narrative realized through the Twitter account of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation is analyzed. All posts created in 2022 and 2023 were analyzed by qualitative analysis method. It was observed that Russia's digital diplomacy posts were created as a counter-narrative to the allegations against the country.