Research on the March 8th Women's Day-Themed Advertisement in Russia

Introduction

Russia is a country that has spread to Europe and Asia in the historical process. Due to this spread, it has lived together with Eastern cultures and civilizations and Western culture along with value judgments. After accepting the orthodoxy of Christianity, Russia has shaped its domestic and foreign policy accordingly (Yılmaz, 2015: 113). Russia, which surrounds the Arctic Ocean in the north of Asia, stretches from Europe to the North Pacific Ocean and spreads over an area of 17,098,242 km². Russia is surrounded by four geopolitical regions: Northern Europe, Western Asia, Central Asia, and the Far East. According to the 2010 census, the languages spoken in Russia are Russian (85.7%), Tatar (3.2%), and Chechen (1%). The other languages spoken in Russia make up 10.1%. The officially recognized religions in Russia are Orthodox Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism (Eser, 2017, 5). Since the geopolitical split in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), Russia has regarded organizational mechanisms aimed at keeping the countries in the region together under its leadership as a solution (Alım&Aksu, 2019: 2). After the dissolution of the USSR, Russia's regional policy was shaped by determining the former Soviet geography as the country's area of interest. After the close relations with the West between 1991-1993, the Yeltsin administration in Russia began to give more weight to developments in its region (Sakwa, 2008: 369). For Russia, thinking that the center of gravity of global politics is moving away from the West and that different power centers are being formed, compared to the 1990s, the center of gravity of its foreign policy is no longer limited to the country’s western side, oriented toward NATO and the EU, but also the whole of Eurasia, especially with the rise of China (Alım&Aksu, 2019: 16). After Vladimir Putin came to power, he has continued Yeltsin's foreign policy in recent years. In the first decade of the 21^st century, Russia has again shown itself as a strong player. Russia's presidency of the UN Security Council and the G-8 in 2006 further increased its role in the international arena (Kemaloğlu, 2016: 8-10). In line with the Eurasian Union’s policy, in which Putin set priorities, the Presidents of Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan signed an agreement on November 18, 2011, to establish the Eurasian Union by 2015. With the agreement, the Eurasian Commission and Eurasian Economic Area were established within the scope of the European Union Commission model (Yılmaz, 2015: 118).

Russia continues to hold the title of the country with the largest territory in the world. Russia has borders with 16 countries (Kemaloğlu, 2016: 3). With a population of 146 million, the Russian Federation is the most populous country on the European continent and the largest country in the world in terms of surface area. It has the 9^th largest economy in the world in terms of nominal GDP and the 6^th largest economy in terms of purchasing power parity. Nowadays, while private enterprises carry out a significant part of commercial and economic activities and production, the public sector assumes effective control over natural resources (especially oil and natural gas) and financial markets (Bulut, 2018: 346). Russia, which has ranked fifth in the world with its population and land size, has also become the country with the largest economic potential among the former Soviet Republics with its rich natural resources (Güler, 2012: 100). Russia has experienced significant economic transformations since the early 1990s. During the relevant period, the country became open to the outside world by switching to a free market economy (Yüksel, 2016: 44).