How the News is Reported in Russia
November, 2008
by Andrei Nesterov

Dmitry Medvedev Introduces Bill Extending Presidential Term

All major channels reported that President Dmitry Medvedev introduced a bill to the State Duma that would expand presidential terms from 4 to 6 years, and terms served in the state Duma from 4 to 5 years. The President introduced another bill at the same time that would expand the powers of the State Duma in controlling government functions, First Channel reported.

Russia Channel quoted President's aide Larisa Brycheva as saying that changing the presidential term in office does not require conducting referendum among all the people of the country, it is sufficient to obtain the approval of two thirds of Russia's regional legislatures. Bycheva also said that the change of the presidential term in office will not be applicable to the incumbent president. The channel seemed to downplay that changing the presidential term requires a constitutional amendment.

While some other media outlets (some newspapers and the radio station Echo Moskvi) reported that opposition groups not currently represented in the State Duma are opposing the expansion of presidential and deputy terms (the change would require that the Russian constitution be amended), neither Russia Channel nor First Channel aired these criticisms.

Federation Council Passes Presidential Term Extension

On November 26, the upper house of Russian parliament, Federation Chamber approved amendments to the Constitution recently proposed by President Dmitry Medvedev. According to the amendments, the presidential term will be extended from 4 to 6 years and from terms served by deputies of Russia's State Duma will be extended from 4 to 5 years.

First Channel stated in its report that Russia is not the first place to extend terms of office, that earlier it had occurred in Europe and the USA before where "major political leaders were in office for many consecutive years."

Russian TV broadcast a number of interviews with politicians approving the new amendments. The Speaker of Federation Council Sergey Mironov said that the changes will enable the future President of Russia to elaborate and implement long-term improvement programs in social and economic spheres. Deputy Speaker of the State Duma Aleksandr Babakov expressed the belief that the President should be in office for six years because each president approves a federal budget for a three year period, thus, six years is more "convenient." LDPR party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky called the 6-year period in office for the president and 5-year for the parliament "optimal" and said that in the future the title of the head of Russian state may be changed as well, in order to not to call the leader of the nation by the English word "president."

No dissenting views on the topic were presented by either channel.

Death of Patriarch Alexy II

Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexy II died in the morning of Friday December 5, at the age of 79. He had headed the Russian Orthodox Church since 1990. All Russian news broadcasts featured extensive and reverential coverage of his life and passing. Alexy had been ill for several years with a illness affecting his heart, but had remained active nevertheless. He had attended public events even a few days before his death, making his passing exceptionally shocking to the public.

Russian TV reported on the thousands of Russians mourning his passing and showed long lines of people waiting near Christ the Savior Cathedral where a public viewing and funeral services were being held.

First Channel in its report called the deceased Patriarch “not only the head of the largest and the most important religious confession in our country’s history,” but also a “moral authority for all people of the country, including the President.” The channel named preserving the unity of Russian Orthodox Church as the Soviet Union collapsed as the main accomplishment of Alexy II.

Russia Channel gave a detailed biography for Patriarch Alexy II and reported that under his authority, many old church buildings were restored, the Russian Orthodox religion became a popular religion again, and the relationship between the church and the government improved significantly.

Russia Channel reminded the public that Alexy II tried to reconcile the opponents during the October 1993 clashes between the president and the parliament to prevent bloodshed on Moscow's streets. Despite that the negotiations did not result in a ceasefire, the fact that the negotiations took place "changed society for the better," Russia Channel reported. The channel also stated that Alexy II managed to accomplish what nobody else could – to reunite the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, a split that occurred when church authorities inside the Soviet Union agreed to work with the communist leaders and the Church abroad disagreed with this.

Russia Channel stated the opinion that Patriarch Alexy II deserves to be officially named a saint for initiating the reunification and reported that Russians they had interviewed agree to that. “His personal purity cannot be compared to the any of today’s public figures of the church,” Russia Channel quoted one Orthodox woman as saying in an interview.

President Dmitry Medvedev Visits Latin America

In its report on President Medvedev's official visit to Venezuela, First Channel stressed that Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez expressed his gratitude to the Russian president for his contribution in forming a multi-polar world. In his response, Dmitry Medvedev said that the desire of a multi-polar world had brought him to Venezuela.

During the visit, the two leaders negotiated a new visa-free regime between the two countries, and plans to involve Russian companies in developing oil and gas deposits in Venezuela. The two leaders were shown on both Russian Channel and First Channel announcing these achievements.

Medvedev visited several other countries and the news followed his movements carefully. In Brazil, businessmen from Russia visiting short term, no longer need visas as a result of the negotiations between Dmitry Medvedev and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. According to First Channel, the leaders agreed that Gazprom will start operating in Brazil in 2009. They discussed a number of other projects, such as Russia's participation in developing the railway system and nuclear energy sector in Brazil. In addition, Brazil intends to purchase Russian weapons, First Channel reported.

The highlight of Medvedev's visit to Peru was his being awarded the "Order of the Sun," which is the "highest award given by Peru's government." According to both channels who showed a smiling Medvedev having the large sun medallion pinned to his chest by the Peruvian president, Alan Garcia Perez.

Commenting on the visit of Dmitry Medvedev in Cuba, Russia Channel quoted expert Sergey Mikheev as saying that in the relations with Venezuela, Russia has set military and technical cooperation as a priority, but in the case of Cuba, Russia is concentrating only on economic projects. Thus, the Kremlin sends a signal to Washington – "we do not want to deteriorate our relations with the USA."

Russian TV Criticizes Ukraine Views on Famine

In coverage of Ukraine's commemorating the 75th anniversary of the massive famine in Ukraine that occurred in the 1930s and known as "Golodomor," in Ukraine, Russian TV channels reported that Ukrainian President Victor Yushenko felt that the famine was a planned genocide of the Ukrainian people. They denounced this view, reporting that the famine took place in other republics of the former Soviet Union as well and affected people of many other nationalities besides for Ukrainian.

"One should not try to profit from a country-wide misfortune, which affected all the grain-farming territories of Ukraine, Cuban, and Northern Kazakhstan," Russia Channel quoted the Director of the Ukrainian Institute of Archeology Petr Tolochko as saying.

Russia Channel also questioned the number of Ukrainians who died during the Golodomor, saying that there are few documents available about the famine and the figures of 3-10 million people, as given by the Ukrainian authorities, may be far from reality. In its criticism of the current Ukrainian leadership, the channel used terms such as "lying" and "swaggering."

Both channels also reported about an international conference which took place in Moscow to examine the famine of the 1930s, and that that conference found the tragedy was country-wide. The Moscow conference took place simultaneously with the events arranged by Ukraine to honor Ukrainian victims of the famine.

Both channels also broadcast a statement made by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev who said that Ukraine was using the tragic events of the 1930's for achieving short-term political goals, such as acceptance to NATO, while misinterpreting historical facts.

United Russia Holds Annual Convention

Russian TV depicted the speech of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as the key event of the convention of United Russia which was held on November 20-21. According to First Channel, in his speech Vladimir Putin "introduced measures for overcoming the consequences of the economic crisis." First Channel quoted the prime minister as saying that the crisis should not affect the well-being of Russian citizens, and promised the state will fulfill all its social obligations towards its people, and the economy and business will be assisted by reducing taxes.

Russian TV reported that Vladimir Putin chaired the United Russia convention for the first time. After announcing that the convention had been opened, Putin invited President Medvedev to make a speech. The Russian President spoke about the major role of the United Russia party and said that overcoming the financial crisis is one of tasks for the party.

TV allotted much more time to the speech of Prime Minister Putin calling his proposals "a well-structured package of anti-crisis economic measures." First Channel stated that if the plan is successfully implemented, Russia will become "the strongest in the world, a prosperous country."

Communist Party Convention

Russian TV channels were largely critical in their reports of the 13th Party Convention of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, which was held from November 29 to 30.

"In recent years, (Communist party leader Gennady) Zyuganov has managed to preserve the party apparatus, but lose its future," Russia Channel quoted political expert Aleksei Chesnakov as saying. Chesnakov went on to say that all the proposals of the Communist leaders on ways to deal with the financial crisis in Russia are repetitions of old ideas. Today the party is being shaken with scandals caused by its disappointed members, said Chesnakov.

Another politician, Chairman of Federation Council Sergey Mironov was shown on Russian Channel saying that "the majority of honest Communists which are in the Russian communist Party are deceived by the party leadership, by Mr. Zyuganov, who is leading them into the past."

First Channel spoke with flat irony when reporting that Gennady Zyuganov was reelected as the leader of the Communist Party. The anchors stated that "Zyuganov will outstrip (unpopular Soviet leader) Leonid Brezhev, who was head of the party for 18 years."

Meanwhile, Russia Channel was more detailed in reporting about the issues discussed at the convention. The channel reported that the Communists are proposing "to create a state banking system which will not depend on speculative capital," as well to "modernize" Communist ideas and support a new kind of proletariat – "the office proletariat."

The State of the Federation Address

The address made by President Medvedev to the Federal Assembly was commented both by Russian TV and politicians at length as a "breakthrough." According to First Channel, the address of the Russian President united two ideas which have before been "historically impossible" in Russia: liberal ideas of personal freedom and the ideology that the state's greatness must be built through the greatness and freedom of an entire people.

First Channel stated in its comments that the President denounced the unilateral model of global governance as obsolete and inefficient because "the USA, using its dominating position in the world and not taking anybody else into consideration, stimulated the economy by inflating a bubble, which finally burst."

In addition, the channel's commentators denounced the USA for "testing the durability of Russia." Russia will not allow itself to be drawn into an arms race, but its response to threats will be adequate, First Channel stated when referring to Medvedev's statement about deploying Russian missiles in the Kaliningrad region.

The half-hour speech covered many other topics. Concerning Medevev's discussion of political reforms, including the idea to expand the terms in office for the President and the Duma deputies, First Channel stated that "society" has already been discussing these changes "for a long time."

Russian TV broadcast interviews with several leading politicians affiliated with United Russia, all of whom approved of the idea of expanding presidential terms and of the president's speech in general.

Prime Minister Putin Gives Live, Public Q&A

First Channel stressed that Vladimir Putin answered questions about economic issues, such as mortgages, salaries, pensions, exchange rates and more during his televised Q&A session aired live on December 4.

Russia Channel broadcast favorable comments of United Russia leaders on the event. Chairman of the Duma Committee on Financial Markets Vladislav Reznik said that he realized after hearing Putin's statements that "the government is implementing a balanced policy on overcoming the consequences of the global financial crisis" and "Russia is able to overcome the crisis."

Chairman of the United Russia Council Vyacheslav Volodin said that Putin gave answers to a variety of questions and found time to communicate to many people in informal atmosphere.

Meanwhile, Russia Channel balanced its reporting by quoting ranking Communist Party official Ivan Melnikov as saying that the question-and-answer session "was an attempt to soothe the society, and not a successful attempt." Melnikov said that there no concrete answers to questions related to the current economic crisis were given.

First Deputy Head of the Just Russia Party, Oksana Dmitrieva, said in a Russia Channel interview that she expected to hear the prime minister detail a program to overcome the crisis, but instead heard him answer only "some questions."

20 Dead in Russian Submarine Accident

On November 8, 20 people died after being poisoned with Freon gas released from a fire control system on board a Russian nuclear submarine in the Bay of Japan. Another 22 were injured. Russia Channel and First Channel both broadcast an official Navy statement that the accident happened because of an "unsanctioned" activation of the fire control system.

No information was immediately revealed about possible causes of the system malfunctioning, however, Russia Channel reported that the system starts automatically, so the possibility that someone purposely triggered it should be ruled out.

Day of People's Unity Promoted by Authorities

National TV Channels broadcast the statement of President Medvedev who congratulated the Russian people on the Day of People's Unity and expressed hope that this "young" holiday will obtain relevant "spiritual traditions" because unity is a prerequisite for the country's development.

TV reported on mass celebrations in many Russian cities, and on rallies organized by pro-government parties and organizations, such as rallies of Nashi, United Russia, and LDPR in Moscow. At Nashi's event, 10,000 people from different regions of Russia made a giant quilt in the center of Moscow as the symbol of "peoples' friendship." At United Russia rallies across the country, party leaders were shown giving speeches. At the rally in Moscow, one such leader compared contemporary times with the end of the Time of Turmoil in Russian history, Russia Channel reported.

The chanells did not provide information about any rallies and events held by opposition parties or nationalist groups – which also seem to have been few in number this year than in previous.

Russian TV Supports Barack Obama

First Channel called US president-elect Barack Obama "the symbol of changes which are expected by Americans." The channel mentioned as most important the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq within 16 months and improving foreign relations among those changes which president-elect Obama promised to implement. First Channel stated that a phone conversation had already taken place between Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, and that the two leaders discussed the need to meet soon and both expressed willingness to establish "productive cooperation."

Most major television channels also reported on dire predictions concerning Obama. Russia Channel broadcast an interview with Director of Institute of the USA and Canada Sergey Rogov who said that Obama might "repeat the destiny of John Kennedy... but I have a feeling that today the political leaders are protected better." He did not elaborate.

All major stations also expressed a concern voiced by many American political analysts: while Barrak Obama may have many plans and ideas for change, that he cannot implement them himself and will need to convince the rest of the American government to do so. Whether or not he will be able to do this remains to be seen.

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