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                                                               ISSN 2562-8429 

 

 

 

 

 

Biopolitics and the Construction of (Mis)Trust: Public Discourse Regarding 

Pandemic Governance in Saint Petersburg, Russia 

 

Konstantin Galkin1, Sociological Institute of FCTAS RAS, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation 

Oksana Parfenova2, Sociological Institute of FCTAS RAS, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation 

 

 

Abstract 

This study is dedicated to the development of trust and distrust in the measures taken by the 

authorities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using the concept of biopolitics, the authors 

analyze the reactions of social network users and their communication with the authorities. For 

this purpose, throughout the course of one year, the authors have studied posts on one of the 

official social media groups of the Saint Petersburg authorities. The posts concerned various 

anti-COVID measures: vaccination, mask requirements, online learning, as well as other 

restrictions and comments. For the analysis, the authors used the AntConc program. Based on 

the findings, the authors identified three discourses. The most prominent two are those of 

dissent and resistance. 

The theoretical context in this article is the synthesis of the ideas of Foucault and Agamben. 

The authors present a continuum of different discourses, ranging from liberal and oriented to 

the understanding of biopolitics as a norm of effective management to disciplinary discourses 

and the perception of measures and restrictions as attempts at control. These are based on users’ 

distrust, doubts, and unwillingness to follow the prescribed measures. Within these two 

discourses, users communicate with different public authorities more actively.  

The authorities’ communication, based on references to legislative acts, did not foster trust and 

increased discontent, while users facing a lack of active resistance to biopolitical measures 

resorted to evasion tactics such as not wearing masks and using fake QR codes. 

  

 
1 Konstantin Galkin is a Senior Researcher at the Sociological Institute, Federal Center of Theoretical and Applied 
Sociology, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation .  
2 Oksana Parfenova is a Senior Researcher at the Sociological Institute, Federal Center of Theoretical and Applied      
Sociology, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation .          
 



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Introduction 

The outbreak of the pandemic evoked distrust of the healthcare system, which manifested in 

skepticism toward the capabilities of medicine, preventive measures, and, eventually, 

vaccination. There was a considerable rise in conspiracy theories, including those concerning 

the origin of the pandemic. This, in turn, affected personal health practices and attitudes toward 

vaccination (van Mulukom et al. 2022). Several contemporary studies, which analyze the 

particularities of the pandemic progression, focus on studying the discourses of denial regarding 

the role of medicine and vaccines, as well as the denial of the mortality risk of the virus and the 

discussions of conspiracy theories online (Escardó 2021; Isupova et al. 2021; Lavorgna and 

Myles 2021). On the one hand, the creation of vaccines and the start of the vaccination 

campaign generated various discourses about vaccination against the new disease, but on the 

other hand, propelled the discussion between supporters and opponents of vaccination to the 

next level. This has led to discourses of trust and distrust of vaccination as the best way to 

combat COVID-19. 

Markers of willingness and unwillingness to vaccinate as well as follow the necessary 

precautionary measures are the key signs of distrust of state biopolitics. Further, various protest 

activities indicate the way people themselves try to modify biopolitics and disciplinary bodily 

practices, which, of course, include mandatory vaccination (Van Bavel et al. 2020; Rouse 

2021). The state measures to combat the pandemic, the most drastic of which were lockdowns 

and self-isolation of varying degrees of strictness, the requirement to wear masks, and 

eventually vaccinate, represent the classic concept of biopolitics according to Michel Foucault, 

where the state tries to make all citizens behave in a certain manner (Foucault 2010). In response 

to this, citizens show resistance and engage in various discourses, often using social networks 

and mass media. Although Russia was among the first to launch a vaccination campaign, 

citizens’ level of vaccine acceptance was low from the very beginning .3 There were regular 

scandals and stories about buying vaccination certificates, and as of May 2022, there were 1,101 

criminal cases for selling fake certificates. 4  There were quite a few people willing to fake 

vaccination to get the coveted QR code, such as by using someone else's or an artificially-

generated certificate or buy a certificate online. Obviously, these tactics are the result of the low 

trust in vaccines. In this regard, the authors consider it worthwhile to study how distrust is built 

in the context of the biopolitical measures introduced by the authorities, which focus on 

restrictions and mass preventive vaccination.     

Although today there is a certain pool of research dedicated to radical COVID-dissidents and 

COVID-dissidence in general, pandemic-related discourses produced by casual users of social 

networks are still insufficiently studied (Kirzyuk 2021; Lyu et al. 2022). The authors suggest 

that studying commentaries made by ordinary users of social networks allows us to determine 

and analyze existing discourses about biopolitical measures of the authorities. This determined 

the focus of the authors’ research interest that did not include specialized communities, for 

 
3 As a result, almost a year and a half since the start of vaccination, Russia is in 101st place in the world by 
vaccination rate GOGOV. 2024. “Statistika vaktsinatsii ot COVID-19 v mire” [Global COVID-19 vaccination 
statistics]. Accessed May 28, 2024. https://gogov.ru/covid-v-stats/world.  
4  See e.g. MKRU. “‘Vmesto ruki kolem v gubku’: koroli fal’shiivykh privivok raskryli skhemu” [Instead of 

injecting the arm, we inject a sponge: fake vaccination kings reveal scheme]. June 27, 2021. Accessed July 20, 
2024. https://www.mk.ru/social/health/2021/06/27/vmesto-ruki-kolem-v-gubku-koroli-falshivykh-privivok-
raskryli-skhemu.html?ysclid=l8wxzz4xhv127779942; Bashlykova, Natal’ia. “Ne ukol’no: v Rossii vozbudili 
1101 del o prodazhe COVID-sertifikatov” [No jab: in Russia, there have been 1101 criminal cases initiated for 

selling COVID certificates]. Izvestia, May 13, 2022. Accessed July 20, 2024. https://iz.ru/1333543/natalia-
bashlykova/ne-ukolno-v-rossii-vozbudili-1101-delo-o-prodazhe-covid-
sertifikatov?ysclid=l8wy3nqq57494343586. 

https://www.mk.ru/social/health/2021/06/27/vmesto-ruki-kolem-v-gubku-koroli-falshivykh-privivok-raskryli-skhemu.html?ysclid=l8wxzz4xhv127779942
https://www.mk.ru/social/health/2021/06/27/vmesto-ruki-kolem-v-gubku-koroli-falshivykh-privivok-raskryli-skhemu.html?ysclid=l8wxzz4xhv127779942
https://iz.ru/1333543/natalia-bashlykova/ne-ukolno-v-rossii-vozbudili-1101-delo-o-prodazhe-covid-sertifikatov?ysclid=l8wy3nqq57494343586
https://iz.ru/1333543/natalia-bashlykova/ne-ukolno-v-rossii-vozbudili-1101-delo-o-prodazhe-covid-sertifikatov?ysclid=l8wy3nqq57494343586
https://iz.ru/1333543/natalia-bashlykova/ne-ukolno-v-rossii-vozbudili-1101-delo-o-prodazhe-covid-sertifikatov?ysclid=l8wy3nqq57494343586


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instance, vaccination opponents or COVID-dissidents (which have clearly delineated and 

structured boundaries) and instead turned to a popular public group, specializing in providing 

official information. The authors’ principal research interest is the issue of building mistrust in 

biopolitics among social network users during the pandemic.  

 

Theoretical context 

“What is the point of continuing to live, if we can no longer do the things that give meaning to 

our lives?” (Friedrich 2021). This was the question that the German philosopher Jörg Phil 

Friedrich asked the global community, referring to the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic has 

brought us back to the “bare life” concept of Giorgio Agamben. This concept implies biological 

existence being placed outside the law and exclusively within the context of regulations and 

control imposed by the state and authorities (Agamben 2011). During the pandemic, 

Agamben’s ideas have sparked a wave of criticism and prompted attempts to reinterpret the 

philosophical implications of global epidemics. 

Agamben’s criticism of the general concept of the pandemic is based on three key changes that 

have occurred in people’s lives since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The first change 

is technological. With the outbreak of the pandemic, people had fewer opportunities for 

communication, and all interaction and communication moved online, which disrupted familiar 

social relations. Agamben illustrates this with online learning, which, in turn, creates difficulties 

in receiving a quality education. The second change is biomedical. It is primarily due to total 

medicalization. Medicine starts to dominate society, and miraculous contexts of salvation are 

equated with those in religion. Medicine becomes a kind of COVID religion, lifestyle, a code 

of necessary rules and commandment-like regulations. The third change is military and 

mobilization discourse, in which individuality is erased and replaced by society’s endless 

struggle against the virus and constant mobilization of society’s resources (Agamben 2020). 

This thesis of Agamben is well illustrated by the speech of French President Emmanuel Macron, 

where he said: “We are at war” (Macron 2020). The basic premise of these three changes 

identified by Agamben is that anti-pandemic activities, as well as the introduction of 

prohibitions, restrictions, and the adoption of military and mobilization vocabulary, reduced 

life to mere existence and survival. Individual freedom is cancelled and replaced by collective 

struggle. 

Upon consideration of the particularities of the distribution of freedom and power and the 

demarcation of lines between the two during the pandemic, it is impossible to ignore the concept 

of biopolitics introduced by Foucault as one of the means of regulating the life processes of 

people in the age of neoliberalism (Foucault 2005, 252–277; Foucault, 2010; Lemke 2001). 

Throughout the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been ongoing debates about the 

role of people in this process. Among the disputed issues is the question of the degree to which 

it is possible to control and dispose of one’s freedom during a pandemic: bodily freedom of 

movement (Dinacci 2021; Wynn 2021). Broadcast by the authorities and the media, the 

discourse of restrictions disrupts the familiar routine and changes attitudes toward health and 

medicine. In this case, the concept of biopolitics becomes a reference point and provides context 

for theorizing about the distribution of trust in the authorities and medical technologies, as well 

as for understanding the peculiarities of control in a pandemic.  

Considering the peculiarities of the COVID-19 pandemic’s spread and its various scenarios, the 

authors turn to social and political models identified by Foucault, which he considered using 

the examples of epidemics that existed in Europe. Foucault distinguished two models common 

to various types of societies: the “model of exclusion of lepers” and the “model of inclusion of 



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the marginalized” (Foucault 2005, 208). In the modern age, society has developed a mechanism 

to prevent infection, and if the control of leprosy required the exclusion of an infected person 

and their isolation, the control of a plague called for another disciplinary mechanism, more 

characteristic of epidemics in modern society that implies that the state policy of epidemic 

control concerns not only plague victims but the public in general (Mamychev 2020; Pele and 

Riley 2021). Foucault considered this disciplinary mechanism to be the cornerstone of 

biopolitics in modern societies. It implies that most modern societies do not invoke the model 

of exclusion of the infected from social life, but on the contrary, integrate the ‘deviants’ into 

common productivity, which is achieved by the creation of vaccines and medicines. This 

contributes to the strict labour and political management in the treatment of different epidemics 

that occur in modern societies (Budzi 2022; Manichkin 2021). In these circumstances, the role 

of the concept of biopolitics becomes quite evident. It does not highlight the benefits and 

drawbacks of ‘control over people’s bodies,’ nor does it praise different forms of power, but it 

does facilitate understanding of transitional historical states. 

Foucault notes that power, the key element of biopolitics, is a network of constantly strained 

and active relations rather than a privilege of certain individuals (Foucault 2002). Thus, the 

concept of power, according to Foucault, is a combination of strategic mechanisms that 

participate in this network. Resistance to the network can happen at two levels. At the first level, 

there is direct resistance, namely opposition to power, aimed directly at blocking it. The second 

level involves a restructuring of the network itself, changes and transformations of existing 

strategic positions, as well as changes within disciplinary practices (Giraldo Díaz 2006; Lemke 

2001). The second level, as a rule, is implemented at the expense of resources outside the 

network. At this level, resistance depends on individual capabilities and the capabilities of 

specific groups of individuals. Discourse is an important resource for the second level since it 

creates new forms of protest and serves as a kind of “fuel” to resistance to the accepted 

disciplinary practices of biopolitics (Death 2010). 

It is important to understand that the very concept of biopolitics proposed by Foucault is the 

idea of how government control can develop during a pandemic but not the ideal course of this 

development. Biopolitical theorizing about the processes occurring during pandemics is 

particularly relevant today. What matters here is not so much the analysis of total restrictions 

and establishment of control over society as the study of how the pandemic creates new social 

orders and perspectives and changes communication and subjects of interactions.  

Concepts of biopolitics by Foucault and Agamben differ in their views on the creation of control 

mechanisms within the framework of biopolitics. In particular, an important  difference is the 

concept proposed by Agamben of the sovereign as a key decision-making figure: “The 

sovereign is the one who makes a decision on a state of emergency” (Agamben 2011, 53). Thus, 

according to Agamben, it is the sovereign that has a monopoly on decision-making and 

determines when it is necessary to introduce and remove restrictions. Also, the sovereign in the 

concept of Agamben has the right of flaw— an exclusive right that goes beyond the norm but, 

at the same time, remains in a relationship with it. Therefore, going beyond the norm, according 

to Agamben, is primarily a temporary measure when the rule does not cease to apply but is only 

temporarily limited or changed (Agamben 2011, 235). Consequently, the main claim of the 

sovereign is the right to the possibility of including in the legal field norms and time constraints 

that were previously outside of it. This is well illustrated by the actions of many governments, 

which, with the onset of the pandemic, restricted or completely stopped the work of many large 

enterprises and shopping centers, changed and reduced public transport routes and so on. As 

noted by Agamben, it is precisely human life as such that the actions of all restrictive norms 

apply. In his opinion, individuals fully entrust their lives to the sovereign, which in turn 



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contributes to the creation of an “obedient body” and regulatory mechanisms, the purpose of 

which is to anticipate events and minimize risks and losses arising from events (Agamben 

2011).  

As Foucault himself mentioned, relatively different concepts, disciplinary and regulatory, can 

be combined together, considering the example of a large city where police disciplinary control 

is supplemented by mechanisms for regulating life, such as sanitary control, insurance, and 

various forms of economic behaviour (Foucault 2019). The pandemic also clearly illustrates the 

intersection of two ideas of biopolitics, when the general recommendations of doctors and 

epidemiologists are interpreted completely differently by the leadership of different countries 

and, as a result, are perceived differently by the residents of these countries. This is an excellent 

example of the intersection of concepts—disciplinary (Agamben) and regulatory (effective), 

which was put forward by Foucault in terms of combining harsh measures and their softer and 

more effective application in different regions. Based on this, the authors consider biopolitics 

in the context of a pandemic—a synthesis of rigid and not always productive totalitarian 

governance through prohibitions and control, which was carried out with varying force in 

different regions of the world, as well as a soft model of productive governance proposed by 

Foucault involving the use of various tools of soft control and coercion. In this study, in order 

to analyze various discourses, the authors use a synthesis of two concepts of biopolitics 

(Foucault and Agamben) and answer the question of how life is regulated through exceptions 

and prohibitions.  

The innovations that shape new discourses and create biopolitical precedents of the COVID-19 

pandemic include media politics, the broadcasting of restrictions, and various rallying cries. 

Thus, the slogan that “it is fashionable to be safe” divides society into several factions: 

opponents and adherents of wearing masks as well as those who intensify the discussion 

concerning the need to wear masks (Schubert 2022). Researchers who criticize the use of the 

classical concept of biopolitics do not fully agree to attribute all existing restrictions to a state 

policy of total control. Instead of a one-sided view on the issues and an attempt to explain all 

measures by total restrictions, there is a proposition to identify several areas of pressure, among 

which an important one is mediocracy, pressure on the media, and manipulation of the media 

through appropriate rhetoric (Calnan 2020; Jayasinghe 2021). Based on the work of the media 

during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ebola fever outbreak, and the avian flu epidemic, scientists 

have documented discourses that can traumatize the public, increasing anxiety and stress for 

most people (Garfin, Silver, and Holman 2020). What it involves is, first, the heroification of 

doctors and medical personnel; second, the treatment of the virus as a military enemy and the 

comparison of self-isolation to military mobilization; third, the discourse of total control, which 

metathesizes existing restrictions and regulations. All this becomes the subject for discussion, 

a heated debate among social network users regarding resistance to the policies, media-created 

agenda of total restrictions, and a loss of individuality. As a result, the virus becomes an 

invisible enemy that can lurk in every person and has a “hideous” face created by media 

discourse and the atmosphere around it. What becomes interesting in this situation is not 

Agamben’s consideration of total bans, restrictions, and a loss of anthropocentricity but an 

examination of the whole context. As Latour pointed out, the establishment of pandemic orders 

takes place in the statistical state, when the individuality of citizens locked in their homes is 

transferred online, and the depressing cries of ambulance sirens can be heard in the streets, 

creating a particular fear and realization of inevitability (Latour 2020). The Italian philosopher 

Lorenzini notes that following Foucault’s ideas, we should not focus on the opposition between 

authorities and the individual during a pandemic and rather consider the danger of the biopower 

itself, not taking it at face value and criticizing it (Lorenzini 2020). 



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The study of biopolitics in a pandemic, which undoubtedly has its origins in Foucault’s ideas, 

is therefore possible through an analysis of media discourses. The COVID-19 pandemic, unlike 

plague epidemics, has become largely a pandemic of media biopolitics, which creates relevant 

discourses regarding protection against the virus, enforcement of mask requirements, and the 

need for vaccination (Žižek 2020). Studies dedicated to the perception of the pandemic show 

that the key factor in the acceptance (or nonacceptance) of a pursued policy is trust. The 

majority of studies show a clear quantitative bias towards distrust of state media and the creation 

of various conspiracy theories, particularly the ideas about deliberate exaggeration of the scale 

of the pandemic and its consequences (Freeman et al. 2020; Uscinski et al. 2020). In this study, 

the authors consider trust as a state construct, focusing on Foucault 's work Security, Territory, 

Population: “The public is the population seen under the aspect of its opinions, ways of doing 

things, forms of behaviour, customs, fears, prejudices, and requirements; it is what one gets a 

hold on through education, campaigns, and convictions” (Foucault 2007, 75). One should not 

treat trust or distrust as entirely exogenous to biopolitics and regulation. Instead, they can be 

considered as key categories under which the population is analyzed, measured, and intervened 

(e.g. through opinion polls). The question then becomes, what mechanisms did authorities look 

to in order to govern distrust? 

The belief in the official concealment of the truth about the pandemic and the creation of a 

special positive image of vaccination is common among different groups of people, regardless 

of their financial state, social status, and age. Perhaps distrust is the key message of most 

publications analyzing COVID discourses in the media. Nevertheless, the restrictive measures 

themselves as well as the policy of restrictions, are perceived in absolutely different ways. There 

are accepting and understanding discourses, and there are radical discourses of non-acceptance, 

specifically labelling the non-acceptance of any restrictive measures (Enders et al. 2020; 

Grimes 2021; Romer et al. 2020). The inability to protect oneself from disinformation becomes 

the reason for the search for ideas about global conspiracies, mysticism, and distrust of current 

policies (Goertzel 1994). Similar conclusions can be found in social studies of these issues 

during the pandemic (Bodner, Welch, and Brodie 2020). The loss of control over oneself and, 

consequently, the appearance of “agency panic” are important in the creation of conspiracy 

theories (Melley 2020, 12). The lack of control over one’s freedom gives rise to many ideas 

about total surveillance, brainwashing, alien conspiracy, and the all-seeing eye of Sauron 

(Melley 2008; Sarasin 2020); such ideas allow for the saving of one’s individual freedom. 

Conspiracy theories generate discussions about the necessity to protect oneself from external 

control and the rejection of any expert control. Moreover, within these discourses appears 

resistance to the activities of political institutions in general and calls for opposition to existing 

biopolitics. 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, what mattered was the public participation and response as 

well as individual and collective concern for one’s freedom and safety, which may not only 

contradict the restrictive measures but, on the contrary, support and accept these measures. 

Therefore, in the context of this analysis, it is important to consider how resistance (or non-

resistance) to restrictive measures broadcast by the authorities is discursively framed. To this 

end, the authors analyzed the comments on the posts in the official public group of the 

authorities of a Russian metropolitan city and demonstrated the specificity of the 

representations of resistance to the measures (or, on the other hand, trust in and acceptance of 

them), dictated by the biopolitics broadcast on the Internet. 

The definition of discourse given by the authors in the article tends to the idea of Foucault: 

“Discourse is a set of statements about a particular area; it structures the way of speaking on a 

particular topic and about a particular object, process” (Foucault 2006). According to Foucault's 



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idea, discourse supports a certain “mode” of knowledge production and also makes possible 

certain ways of thinking about reality and excludes others. Important for a researcher analyzing 

discourses in the context of Foucault's idea is the analysis of the context in which different types 

of discourses are possible and the study of the classification rules within which discourses are 

organized, as well as the designation of the rules used to construct pictures of the world and 

various classification systems (Foucault 1984). At the same time, as Foucault noted, different 

discourses do not so much complement each other but, on the contrary, come into conflict with 

each other. For example, knowledge belonging to one type of discourse may exclude knowledge 

concerning the same ideas but belonging to other types of discourse. According to this point of 

view, discourse is a set of interlocking tools that bring together one of the systems of 

knowledge. This study examines different types of discourse regarding restrictions and controls 

during the COVID-19 pandemic, analyzes various perceptions of the restrictions themselves, 

and the degree of trust and distrust regarding the imposed norms. Thus, the discourse is defined 

by the authors as “various states of counteraction.” Since the theoretical context in this article 

is the synthesis of the ideas of Foucault and Agamben, the authors present a continuum of 

different discourses, ranging from liberal and oriented to the understanding of biopolitics as a 

norm of effective management to disciplinary discourses and the perception of measures and 

restrictions as attempts at control. 

In this study, the synthesis of the ideas of Agamben and Foucault is tested empirically. The 

authors’ main objective is to show, based on the analysis of empirical material, possible 

combinations of different types of biopolitics, ranging from the rigid and disciplinary type of 

Agamben to the more liberal and more managerial in the context of Foucault's ideas. This article 

is a possible empirical illustration of such discourses and does not pretend to attempt a 

theoretical unification of these concepts since a theoretical unification of the two concepts of 

biopolitics would certainly require more empirically rich studies in different countries to 

illustrate the possibilities of combining the discourses.    

In this article, the authors focus on the fact that biopolitics is a synthesis of norms of effective 

management and regulatory norms with strict disciplinary rules. When analyzing discourse, this 

allows the authors to type in detail different combinations in various types of discourse: from 

populist and aimed at criticizing and rejecting/accepting existing norms and rules to liberal ones 

that are focused on finding the possibility of effectively managing the pandemic situation. 

 

Research Methodology  

The study focuses on how users in Saint Petersburg engaged with pandemic-related 

publications on the official VKontakte page of a local authority. The main function of this 

public page is to post news, events, and open discussions of various problems. VKontakte, being 

the most popular social network in Russia, consequently has an audience consisting of different 

age groups and diverse professional backgrounds. This audience is particularly representative 

in authorities’ official public groups. In this case, the authors consider the social network as a 

platform for the presentation of citizens’ opinions and views on the measures related to the 

pandemic and vaccination. The authors chose Saint Petersburg because, firstly, it is a large, 

federally significant city with an active online audience and it has a wide representation of local 

public authorities on social networks. Secondly, COVID-19 infection and mortality rates in 

Saint Petersburg were one of the highest in the country. This explains the active level of 

involvement in the VKontakte group; at the time of the study, the total number of subscribers 

in the group was more than 400,000. Moreover, communication in the public group is organized 

in a way that questions posed by users in the group often receive a response from the official 



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authorities (such authorities include the Committee on Healthcare, the Committee on Law and 

Order, the Committee on Labour and Employment, etc.).  

According to the aim of this research, the authors consider the media as an institution that 

creates blanket restrictions, which have been reinforced during the pandemic. In this case, it is 

important to understand the specifics of the media itself, which are considered and analyzed in 

the study. The authors do not consider the media as an independent institution, nor do they 

consider independent media in the article itself; on the contrary, in this article, the authors focus 

on state media, in particular, the official portal of the government on the social media network 

VKontakte. Therefore, in this case, the media are a relay of the official position of the 

government with all restrictions and actions taken to create restrictions during the pandemic. In 

the case described on page 5, the authors are talking about the media in general, among which 

there are certainly independent media that oppose, condemn, and do not accept the general state 

policy and related restrictions. Thus, the sources of media are quite diverse, but in this article, 

the authors focus on official media. 

The period of study was one year: January 1, 2021, to January 1, 2022. Mass vaccination started 

in January 2021, and a year-long analysis allowed the authors to observe the establishment of 

pandemic discourses, including the important topic of vaccination. The authors selected all 

posts related to the pandemic in one way or another, e.g., various COVID restrictions, COVID-

19 vaccination, online learning, infection statistics, etc. The sample consisted of 62 posts with 

comments (approximately several thousand publications in total). All the selected publications 

were divided into different thematic blocks. Altogether there were four blocks: vaccination (21 

publications), pandemic restrictions (21 publications), medical services (12 publications), and 

COVID-19 infection rate (eight publications). 

The first step of the analysis was implemented using the AntConc program. Presently, this 

program is one of the few free and available tools for researchers (Kotiurova 2020). For the 

keywords, the authors selected words most frequently encountered in the comments. In order 

to determine this, the authors performed a frequency analysis of word usage. The words were 

selected from the top 300 most frequently used words in regard to all four thematic groups: 

“vaccination,” “vaccines,” “person,” “vaccine shots,” “antibodies,” “COVID,” “committee,” 

“healthcare,” “diseases,” “vaccinated,” “restrictions,” “doctor,” “immunity,” “health,” “test,” 

“hope,” “is sick,” “PCR,” “Sputnik,” “authorities,” “measures,” “right,” “masks,” “metro,” 

“clinic,” “data,” and “quantity.” The program also allowed us to analyze different contexts of 

the keywords’ usage. 

Next, the authors performed a content analysis of text comments and focused on the wording 

used by commentators in their questions, reactions, and opinions about the various restrictions 

and vaccinations in the first place, as well as any other news related to the pandemic in one way 

or another. 

 

Results of the study 

All pandemic-related publications provoked keen responses and detailed discussions among 

users. As the authors prioritized the concept of trust, in the analysis of comments and discourses, 

the authors focused on the wording of the users’ opinions/assessments/reactions to various 

actions of the authorities: restrictions, vaccination, work of medical institutions, and pandemic 

awareness. By analyzing the context in which the keywords were used, the authors identified 

several different discourses representing different levels of opposition within the issue of trust 

and distrust of state biopolitics. By distinguishing different types of discourse, the authors 

would like to note that statements within one type of discourse on any point of biopolitics did 



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not mean that the user would have the same opinion on the other point. In reality, perceptions 

and opinions are more complicated and often synthetic in their nature. Thus, a person who 

supports vaccination can be opposed to the necessity of wearing masks or, for instance, a user 

who supports remote work and online learning can, at the same time, oppose mask requirements 

on public transport. Therefore, the authors identified different types of discourse without 

claiming that every user can be unambiguously attributed as an adherent to one of them. 

Opinions and attitudes toward various anti-COVID measures may differ, and as a result, a user 

can develop and represent different types of discourse. In this analysis, the authors divided all 

existing kinds of discourse into emotional and, consequently, populist, as well as liberal and 

rational. The authors analyzed each of the kinds of discourse as a special set of knowledge and 

looked for features of two models of biopolitics according to the ideas of Agamben and 

Foucault.  

 

Discourse of Dissent 

This discourse is based on criticism, disagreement, and, sometimes, outright denial of 

biopolitical measures regarding COVID-19. At the core of the discourse is a distrust of various 

degrees of expression directed at the authorities. Communication within this discourse is active, 

both between the users and between the users and the authorities, although the principal 

recipient of distrust is usually the authorities. The analysis showed that the responses of the 

authorities often follow the same template, with arguments of the necessity of existing measures 

in the form of a reference to a specific regulation (a particular COVID-19 decree). The authors 

could not find any other arguments in the authorities’ responses expressed in the categories of 

care/vulnerability/epidemiological necessity. Below, the authors provide several examples. For 

instance, users criticized the measures related to the closure of food courts as illogical at a time 

when pools were open: 

[id*****]5 Waterparks are closed while pools are open. Weird; When will they open the 

fast food???( 

[Response] Good day! The restrictions imposed by Decree 121 regarding food courts, 

food places and public catering facilities located in shopping malls will remain in force 

until January 31. The decision to lift or extend the restrictions will be made with regard 

to the current situation and Rospotrebnadzor6 recommendations. 

The need for remote work for employees aged 65 and above was also a sensitive issue, and the 

argument in response was limited to a reference to another regulation. 

[id*****] And what about the compulsory remote work for citizens 65+? (don’t tell 

anyone what they should do…; they will somehow figure out what to do.;   

[Response]: Good day, Yulia! This is the response of the Committee on Labor and 

Employment of Saint Petersburg. In accordance with the Decree of the Government of 

Saint Petersburg of 13.03.2020 No. 121 the requirement for organizations (individual 

entrepreneurs) to ensure transfer of employees (executors under civil-law contracts) 

aged 65 and above, as well as employees (executors under civil-law contracts) with 

chronic diseases, to remote working mode will remain in force until January 31, 2022). 

Much debated, the mask requirement was also heavily criticized by users. Most common 

wordings regarding masks were negative: “masks don’t work,” “masks don’t protect,” and 

“masks are useless.” Sometimes, dissent and denial were passive. Thus, despite the criticism of 

 
5 Hereinafter in quotations the spelling and punctuation of the original comments are preserved. The [id*****] is 
an anonymized identifier of a member of the public who posted on social media.  
6 Rospotrebnadzor is the Federal Service for the Oversight of Consumer Protection and Welfare . 



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forced online learning, parents had to use this format as there was no choice. In some cases, 

denial concerns not just specific measures but the danger of the pandemic itself and, thereby, 

the need to confront it. Opponents of vaccination actively pursued their arguments even on 

moderated platforms, offering to send links that, in their opinion, proved the harm of 

vaccination in direct messages and persuaded other users to listen to them: 

[id*****] I can forward it in a DM. Here links are banned [to the sources with 

documents and other facts about side effects]. Only what’s the point of proving to you 

all the same you will not believe until you live through it yourself...No doctor admits 

that a side effect is from the vaccine, but for example after vaccination a person cannot 

have children. And they will not blame it on that. Although because of the vaccine a 

person lost their reproductive abilities, as well as got other diseases. This has happened 

and happens in different countries over the years. 

Representatives of the dissent discourse generally recognized the disciplinary role of the 

authorities' control during the pandemic but, at the same time, expressed confidence that 

effective regulation of norms, which would be created not by one state but by people, would be 

relevant and would allow for a different look at restrictions. However, representatives of this 

discourse did not give concrete practical examples of such measures. It should also be noted 

that representatives of this discourse did not express any populist ideas regarding the creation 

and implementation of effective measures regarding restrictions and the healthcare of the public 

during the pandemic. In general, such discourse should be attributed to a group of populist 

discourses, which are aimed at broadcasting emotions of disagreement and indignation while 

simultaneously accepting and submitting to existing disciplinary norms imposed by biopolitics. 

Adherents of these discourses believed in the possibility of the existence of some abstract liberal 

model of governance, however, they believed that in the current conditions in Russia, the use 

of such a model is hardly possible.  

It should also be noted that not all users are ready to openly criticize or deny biopolitical 

measures. Some broadcast doubts, provided arguments, referred to different sources and 

debated with each other. However, the model of communication with immediate agents of 

biopolitical measures (the authorities) is constructed in a way that leaves no room to overcome 

the distrust. 

Thus, the discourse of dissent expresses distrust and unwillingness (where possible) to comply 

with the introduced measures. Moreover, the range of arguments for dissent with the broadcast 

biopolitical norms is quite wide: from skepticism about the inconsistency of the existing 

measures (when some public places continued to be open, while others with the same number 

of people were closed) to references to conspiracy theories, which boil down to propagating the 

harms and dangers of vaccination. 

 

Discourse of Resistance 

This discourse is a continuation of the previous one; it also conveys disagreement with anti -

COVID measures, but, at the same time, users express willingness to resist them with action 

(or inaction) where possible. Considerable resentment among users was caused by compulsory 

vaccination, the introduction of QR codes, and restrictions on movement. Arguments often 

follow the categories of rights. Users use such phrases as violation of rights, right of choice, 

right of movement, right to demand, right to detain, right to introduce QR codes, and civil and 

constitutional rights. 



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Resistance to vaccination is discursively expressed through the declaration of the intention not 

to vaccinate. These declarations vary in their emotional colouration, from neutral to emotional, 

containing contrasting comparisons: 

[id*****] Wouldn’t take it for free, take it yourself!!! Everything’s gone up in price and 

all of a sudden it’s free! Even if you pay me I won’t do it. I don’t believe it. 

[id*****] I can give you thirty pieces of silver and my vaccine) But I will not get a shot 

of untested mixture!  

As is evident from the comments, users declared that they will not vaccinate and showed their 

distrust of the COVID-19 vaccine as it is an “untested mixture” and it is free, which particularly 

generated distrust because users considered themselves to be guinea pigs who are being 

experimented on.  

Resistance to mandatory QR codes was expressed in the declaration of the intention to assert 

one’s rights: 

[id*****] Apparently someone cannot stomach the truth. So I’ll say it again. Starting 

from August 2, people are suspended from work. Even those who are on sick leave, 

those who have right to medical exemption, those who have had COVID a month ago. 

You can delete my comments all you like. But you cannot intimidate all the people! 

We will stand up for our rights. 

Here it is worth noting that there is little room for active and legal resistance to biopolitical 

measures. Despite the fact that class action suits against mandatory QR codes have been filed 

in different regions of Russia, there are no precedents of such lawsuits being successful (Shmidt 

2021). This allows us to suggest that in practice, the discourse of resistance will likely be 

manifested in the fact that users will invent evasion tactics: not wearing a mask, not vaccinating, 

trying to get a hold of a fake QR code, etc. 

This discourse is an emotionally saturated model of resistance and a rejection of rigid and 

structured norms and rules regarding restrictions in the COVID-19 pandemic. The discourse of 

resistance is characterized by extreme emotionality, which is reflected in populist discussions, 

pronounced resistance to the policy being pursued and calls against total control aimed at a 

wide audience. Representatives of the discourse view the pandemic situation as an exceptional 

opportunity to control everything and increase the level of discipline of individuals through 

vaccination tools. At the same time, there are ideas of liberalizing the norms of biopolitics 

among representatives of the resistance discourse, but they are connected with the search for 

ways to avoid compliance with the strict norms of biopolitics and thereby move to independent 

effective management of their lives during the pandemic.  

    

Discourse of consent (trust) 

Within this discourse, users demonstrate consent and overall commitment to the proposed anti -

COVID measures in different areas, from restrictive measures to vaccination. The discourse 

implies support for vaccination, mask requirements, online learning, etc. There is no demand 

on the authorities, users are more likely to trust the expertise of the authorities in decisions 

concerning biopolitical matters, including supporting the moderation of anecdotal evidence and 

“fakes”: 

[id*****] you know, it just happens that recently I’ve read a good post just on this 

subject of fakes. Here is a public group of the Government and it has only verified 

information, and those who send videos or weird links, of course these are deleted so 

that other people will not give in to panic (there are many susceptible people). Whether 



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to take a shot of vaccine or not is up to you only. Here is a screenshot of the article, so 

it is better to check in several sources and preferably official. 

As a rule, this type of discourse occurs between users, as supporters of this discourse often not 

only demonstrated their support of the measures but also tried to persuade others with various 

arguments. Arguments in favour of vaccinations were based on sharing one’s experience or that 

of relatives (“I/we are vaccinated”), as well as on external arguments about the need for herd 

immunity, etc.: 

[id*****] As you have already come to the conclusion that vaccination has not 

defeated the virus, there are not enough vaccinated people in the world yet to come to 

this conclusion. To achieve herd immunity, 90% of people need to have antibodies. 

Some users engaged in spreading awareness by explaining how the vaccine affects an organism 

and often came into conflict with active representatives of the discourses of dissent and 

resistance as in the following example: 

[id*****] No one is asking you to vaccinate. Why are you so worried about people 

getting it? Everyone should mind their own business. People like you have campaigned 

against vaccines to the point that in the 21st century people die of measles, tuberculosis 

and smallpox. You morons![...] 

In this case, the user partially assumes the function of moderation, pointing out the 

unacceptability of anti-vaccination agitation and making emotional arguments regarding other 

diseases. 

Concerning the issues of online learning, users who adhered to the discourse of consent 

broadcast perspectives about children infecting other family members and becoming 

transmitters of the disease and, therefore, advocating for the isolation of children. This discourse 

is associated with the full adoption of measures to combat the pandemic, which are created by 

the government and, therefore, representatives of this discourse believe in any data regarding 

the pandemic, including unverified data that children are the main carriers of the disease. This 

discourse is closer to the idea of biopolitics proposed by Foucault and is largely determined by 

the lack of resistance to the norms imposed by the state. At the same time, representatives of 

this discourse also recognize the dominance of the Agamben concept of biopolitics, which 

consists of the fact that the norms introduced during the pandemic were not always logical and 

structured restrictions. However, as most representatives of this discourse noted, there were no 

alternative opportunities for effective management policy. Another characteristic feature of this 

discourse is trust in the information contained in the official group and, consequently, the 

acceptance of the norms that were broadcast in it, which tends to the ideas of Agamben about 

the sovereign, total control over bodies and the correctness of the introduction of strict control 

norms.              

 

Conclusions 

The new pandemic order, expressed in an unprecedented increase in state control over citizens 

and strict biopolitical measures, has generated a strong public response. In this article, the 

authors studied the different types of discourse present in these responses using the examples 

of users’ comments on the authorities’ pandemic publications on the social media network 

VKontakte. The analysis demonstrated that the users have developed three key discourses in 

response to the biopolitical measures pursued by the authorities during the pandemic. All the 

discourses identified in the article present a discursive (soft) form of resistance and acceptance 

of biopolitical measures during the pandemic. The most prominent were the discourses of 



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distrust (the authors identified these as discourses of dissent and resistance) linked to denial 

(complete or partial) of the introduced measures, doubts about the effectiveness of mask 

requirements, vaccination, restrictions in work hours of public places and work, and online 

learning. The particular feature of the discourse of resistance is the manifestation of the intent 

to flout biopolitical measures (the most common tactic is not to vaccinate). Within these 

discourses of distrust, users communicate most with the authorities since, as a rule, these 

discussions involve the most troubling and urgent issues and doubts. At the same time, the 

communication between representatives of different state institutions and users followed the 

same pattern: in response to their questions, users received template references to some 

legislative decree regulating a specific restriction. This model of communication with 

immediate conductors of biopolitical measurers (the authorities) does not help overcome 

mistrust and only increases the distrust among the users. Based on the selection of various types 

of discourse, the article draws an important conclusion that the pandemic situation has shown 

the need to rethink the biopolitics model. Factors such as vaccination and various restrictions, 

including the accompanying indecisiveness of the authorities created by the pandemic, 

exemplify that there cannot be an ideal model of biopolitics associated with Agamben’s total 

restrictions or the Fucodian idea of effective governance and liberalization of biopolitics in 

general. Thus, the situation of the pandemic and the peculiarities of biopolitics have shown that 

to consider the situation of the pandemic, it is important to combine the two discourses of 

biopolitics by Foucault and Agamben and consideration of various aspects of the pandemic 

within the framework of these discourses. 

In this article, the authors mainly consider discourses related to various types of acceptance and 

rejection of biopolitics. Discourses can be emotionally populist and liberal-rational, and this 

clarifies the different understandings of total biopolitics as well as the primacy of the sovereign 

in the works of Agamben’s and Foucault's more liberalized biopolitics related to the 

consideration of the concept of biopolitics as measures of effective management and regulation. 

Based on the discourses highlighted in this article, the authors indicate that the concept of 

biopolitics itself and its application in practice is impossible, drawing on the ideal models of 

Foucault and Agamben. Using the example of a pandemic and the perception of control and 

regulation norms, a synthesis of two designated concepts is presented including elements of 

two existing approaches. The synthesis of two approaches to the analysis of biopolitics allowed 

the authors to present this concept as consisting of two zones: the zone of the sovereign right 

of power and the zone of the liberal art of management. As was discovered, the liberal art of 

management is causally connected with the functions of the naked life of Agamben. The 

COVID-19 pandemic, accompanied by various restrictions and calls for vaccination, 

demonstrated that sovereign exclusion, rejection, and maintenance of discipline through the 

creation of strict norms and restrictions (the concept of Agamben) can be perceived absolutely 

differently by citizens and agents of biopolitics on the ground and not always coincide with the 

ideas of total discipline. However, at the same time, restrictions can be perceived as part of 

necessary and sometimes effective health-saving measures. Thus, it is total control measures 

that become elements of effective management policy within the framework of Foucault's 

model. 

At the same time, discussions feature the discourse of consent (trust), which implies arguments 

in favour of vaccination and, to a lesser extent, arguments in favour of mask requirements and 

online learning. Meanwhile, trust is related to the acceptance of existing biopolitics and 

proposed treatments; the authors demonstrate this on a specific model of the government media, 

which, in its definition, acts as an institution of civil society. Based on the Russian case, the 

authors come to the conclusion about the penetration of biopolitics into civil society. 



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The study of discourses is important as it helps to identify and explain different practices of 

users. Distrust of issues concerning bodily autonomy and health defines a person’s choices 

regarding mask requirements, vaccination, and the evasion of measures deemed ineffective or 

sometimes harmful. Considering the low commitment to vaccination and virtually total 

disregard for mask requirements as well as outrage with QR codes, it can be assumed that the 

discursive dissent and resistance manifest themselves in practice. Further continuation of the 

study involves comparing discourses in the community with offline practices of accepting or 

not accepting existing restrictions during the pandemic.    

 

 

  



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