By Murad Rakhimov | 2025-12-16

What began as routine references in political science has spread far beyond it. In Russian academia, President Vladimir Putin is now cited in studies of education, language, medicine and even food safety.

An analysis by the independent outlet Verstka of publications in the eLibrary academic database found that scholars increasingly treat presidential speeches, decrees and public statements not just as objects of study, but as authoritative sources used to support academic conclusions. References to Putin began rising around 2010 and peaked in 2018.

From the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 through 2025, authors mentioned Putin in about 26,500 academic papers. At least 705 publications focused directly on him or his statements.

In one case, an academic paper on preserving the memory of World War II incorporated a Putin quote directly into its title: "Every Russian school must have a museum that carefully preserves the memory of the past war and its heroes."

War and ideology

Researchers most often cited the Russian leader in papers on the so-called "special military operation" and international relations, including dozens of articles focused on Ukraine. Among them were studies such as "The Ukrainian Crisis: A New Stage of Escalation," "The Role of Ukraine in Russian-American Relations," and "The American Political-Academic Elite on the End of the Conflict in Ukraine."

"There is an entire body of academic work devoted to patriotism or the 'moral education' of the younger generation; in recent years, publications related to the 'special military operation' have been added to it," Verstka wrote in November.

In many cases, authors used Putin's statements to justify the relevance of their research. One article on youth education cited his remarks on developing a harmonious personality and raising a Russian citizen.

Putin's words also appeared in unexpected fields.

A linguistic study of the verb "save" cited a speech in which he discussed the death of Yevgeny Zinichev, a former emergency situations minister. Research on speech etiquette referenced how representatives of Arab countries addressed Putin.

Other citations bore little apparent connection to their subject matter. A paper on the role of master's degree programs abruptly inserted Putin's assertion that modern teenagers should become "professionals in their field, ready to work in the economy of the 21st century."

His name surfaced even in papers where it appeared entirely out of place, including studies on genetically modified organisms in agriculture or on Tsarevich Nicholas' travels to Asia in the 19th century.

Additional works examined "Phraseological Units in Vladimir Putin's Interview with Tucker Carlson and Examples of Translations," "Putin in the Linguistic Consciousness of Cadets," and even the "публикация о "Ancestral Memory of the Putin Family." Russian philologists studied proverbs and sayings attributed to the president.

A familiar pattern

Science journalist Ilya Kabanov told Verstka that the scale of citations made Putin resemble "a major scientist." Tens of thousands of references and an h-index of 43 -- a metric that measures both the productivity of a researcher and how often their work is cited -- would be the envy of many prominent scholars, he said. Kabanov added that it was now difficult to imagine a political science article without references to the president.

Sociologist Dmitry Dubrovsky said that citing Putin might be justified in rare cases, but argued that most instances reflected pure sycophancy rather than scholarly need.

Alisher Ilkhamov, director of Central Asia Due Diligence in London, told Kontur that Russia appeared to be reviving a Soviet-style system of ideological control. In the Soviet era, the Communist Party imposed a strict hierarchy of citation: Marxist-Leninist classics came first, followed by party congress materials and then statements from top officials, from Joseph Stalin through Leonid Brezhnev.

"Something similar is starting to happen in Russia now. Only the propagandists have not yet decided who to canonize as classic representatives of the ideology that the ruling regime is trying to impose," Ilkhamov said.

He added that the emerging ideology is overtly anti-liberal, socially conservative and closely tied to the Orthodox Church as interpreted by the Moscow Patriarchate.

Ilkhamov said the framework remains unfinished and is being prepared for a future in which prolonged war depleted state finances and living standards fell sharply.

"And to keep the country under control, Putin's regime will likely impose some kind of totalitarian system, similar to the Soviet one we are painfully familiar with," he said.

Cult and consequences

Political scientist Anvar Nazirov of Tashkent said Russia was sliding into a primitive dictatorship in which Putin functioned as the sole source of authority.

"These quotes themselves are nothing new. But we see that Putin is becoming the sole institution of power as well as the source of Russia's sovereignty," Nazirov told Kontur.

He warned that such systems rarely outlast their leaders. Soviet history showed that quotes and writings of leaders were routinely discarded after their deaths or removals from power.

"Each new Soviet leader purged and deleted everything linked to the name of his predecessor. It's what the pharaohs did in ancient Egypt," Nazirov said.

But Putin's words extended further.

In June 2025, officials announced plans to include his remarks in a new alphabet textbook for first-graders. His adviser Elena Yampolskaya said the president had agreed to the idea so children could feel they were receiving encouragement directly from him.

Putin's statements also appeared in new Russian history textbooks published in 2023, including an 11th-grade volume that devoted a large section to the war in Ukraine and adopted a strongly anti-Western tone.

Alexander Kim, a Russian blogger and human rights activist, said the trend pointed clearly to a cult of personality.

"It's a stupid and funny situation. I feel sorry for the people forced to handle such nonsense. I also feel very sorry for the children who will be learning from primers with 'Grandpa Putin,'" Kim told Kontur.

The fixation has also produced unintended effects. In 2024, State Duma lawmaker Yaroslav Nilov said teenagers were boosting their scores on Russia's Unified State Exam by inserting invented Putin quotes into essays -- and being rewarded for it.

Online guides encouraged students to mention Putin in exam essays, claiming such references, even fictional ones, reliably led to higher grades.