How the News is Reported in Russia
March, 2009
by Andrei Nesterov

The major Russian TV channels proclaimed that the negotiations between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, held in Geneva, were the start of new relations between the two countries. Russia Channel presented most of its analysis through quotes from Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the Duma Committee on International Affairs. The chairman said that the meeting was very "constructive" and would start changes awaited by Russia's leaders for a long time.

Kosachev also said that the first meeting of Lavrov and Clinton did not result in "breakthrough agreements," but did allow the two sides to come a better understanding of their disagreements. Kosachev specifically praised the readiness of the US leaders to start negotiations on renewing the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START-1) which expires in December of 2009.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in a TV interview that concluding a new treaty should become a priority in the US-Russia talks. The minister even mentioned the prospect of "completely abolishing nuclear weapons," saying that it is possible if global strategic stability improves and the "principle of equal security" is enforced worldwide.

Hillary Clinton brought to the talks a symbolic red "reset" button, and asked Lavrov to push the button together to "reset" their relations. However, the word "перезагрузка" ("reset" in Russian) was mistakenly printed, with the letters of the English alphabet, as "peregruzka" ("overcharge" or "overload" in Russian). Lavrov seemed to be quite forgiving of the mistake.

First Channel reported that the mistake was perhaps appropriate, saying that Russia-US relations was, as Clinton remarked after learning of the mistake, “overloaded” with new tasks. Vesti, a 24-hour cable news channel operated by the same company that owns First Channel, gave more time and more criticism to the mistake, adding to Clinton's remark that relations are still "overcharged" with old issues and that the Americans and Russians are still a long ways from coming to an understanding of each other. 

Parties to Nominate Governors

On March 20, Russia Channel reported that the State Duma had passed a law which gives the privilege of nominating candidates for regional governorships to political parties currently occupying the legislature of the region for which the governor is being nominated.

According to the broadcast, each party may nominate three candidates. The nominations must be submitted no later than 90 days before the end of the incumbent governor’s term in office. The Russian president then must consider all candidates and name one of them as the next governor within 30 days of receiving the nominations. If none of the candidates is approved by the president, three other candidates may be nominated.

Russia Channel quoted United Russia party leader Boris Gryzlov as saying that although parties will nominate candidates, the final decision will be made by the president.

Russia channel reported that it was President Dmitry Medvedev who suggested granting the leading political parties the right to nominate governors’ candidates, in his address to the Federal Assembly on November 5, 2008. The president said in his address that “in this way, the exclusive right of nominating candidates will be given to the public and open political structures representing the majority of the country’s population.”

Three Russian Cities Elect Mayor

In its report on the mayoral elections in cities Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Tobolsk and Murmansk on March 15, Russia Channel started with describing the victories of United Russia candidates in the first two cities, and then reported about the Just Russia party victory in Murmansk. The commentator specifically stated that the election results in Murmansk need to be approved by the authorities because of a possible abuse of administrative resources. Governor Yuri Evdokimov was shown on TV saying that he supported the Just Russia candidate, which United Russia has claimed is against Russia's electoral law.

Russia Channel then quoted United Russia official Vyacheslav Volodin as saying that the victories of the United Russia candidates demonstrate that Russian citizens support the policies of the president and government.

On March 21, a Russia TV reported about that governor Yuri Evdokimov had resigned, but did not name any reason for the resignation. Russia Channel only said that Evdokomov was Murmansk governor for 13 years, and new governor candidate nominated by President Medvedev, is much younger, only 45 years old, and is "a good expert in economics."

Reports about Shootings in Russia, USA and Germany

National TV channels reported about the tragedy in Kirovsk, Murmansk region where businessman Ivan Ankushev shot to death city mayor Ilya Kelmanzon and director of Kirovsk utility Sergey Maksimov in the mayor’s office, who then committed suicide.

TV quoted police officials and the city government who called the businessman “a hot-tempered person.”

First Channel quoted Vladimir Markin, the Head of the Public Relations Department of the Office of Prosecutor General, Investigation Committee as saying that “according to the information gathered by investigators, Ankushev was in conflict with the local government officials who did not extend the lease for the premises where the businessman’s two stores were located.”

The channel also reported that the people who knew the businessman, say that his business had problems, and last year he lost several stores because of a conflict with the city government.

Murmansk Region Police Administrative Head Vitaly Fedotov said in a First Channel interview that the businessman suffered from an "incurable disease," and was depressed and that this was likely a reason for his crime.

In comparison, in the reports about the recent shooting in Alabama, USA, Russian TV directly stated that the murderer committed the crimes because of the problems within the societies of those countries. This was stated when Russia Channel reported on the man who killed 10 people in Alabama after being laid of from a local steel plant.

Speaking about a 17-year old who killed 15 people at his former school and other locations before shooting himself in the German town Winnenden, First Channel stated that a possible cause was the attacker's passion for violent computer games.

Russia Disapproves of Warrant for Sudanese President

Russia's national TV channels produced generally negative though fairly balanced reports on the first warrant ever issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for the arrest of a sitting president. President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan is to be tried for alleged war crimes committed in Darfur.

Russia Channel emphasized that thousands were rallying in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum in support of their president. However, the channel also quoted representatives of rebel Sudanese factions who praised the ICC decision.

Both major channels also reported that Sudanese authorities had moved prohibit the work of thirteen NGOs which were suspected of cooperating with the ICC. This fact was not commented on, but rather left to speak for itself.

Although neither channel quoted him, the position of the Russian government is summed up by Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Andrei Nesterenko who stated that "Omar al-Bashir as the head of a state which is not a party to the Rome Statute of the ICC, (and which therefore) enjoys the immunities of a top state official under general international law." In other words, Russia argues that the ICC holds no jurisdiction on the matter.   

Medvedev Publicly Denies Deal with Obama

The New York Times recently reported that President Obama sent a secret letter to President Medvedev in February suggesting that the USA might abandon plans to deploy a missile defense system in Eastern Europe if Moscow would help stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons. 

First Channel has not reported on this yet. Russia Channel broadcast a brief interchange President Medvedev had with reporters at a March 3 press conference in Spain. He stated that, on the subject of correspondence with President Obama, "We do indeed correspond with each other, and it would make no sense to pretend otherwise" but denied a reporter's allegation that "Barack Obama wants to stop the construction and deployment of a missile defense shield if Russia cooperates on the Iranian issue… I can tell you that the issues were not phrased in this way; it would be counterproductive." He denounced the US missile defense project in Europe and said that "in this respect Russia has taken a clear and straightforward position: let's work together on a missile defense system and build an effective and reliable shield against various threats, which are indeed many in number."

Dmitry Medvedev said he believed that the letter from the US President was simply "an indication of readiness to discuss this issue" but also added that "no one is setting conditions of some kind of deal, some kind of swap, all the more so on the Iranian issue."

Beyond these comments, Russia Channel provided no other details or commentary.  

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