In spite of severe economic problems, Russia keeps spending on aggressive propaganda, which cannot but affect people, including EU citizens.
About a month ago a Russia Today office, or rather its daughter – RT Deutsch, opened in Berlin and the channel started broadcasting in the German language.
According to the German RT, its goal is ‘to create new civil society’, its mission is ‘to show manipulations of media and call on persons with different views, reveal the things which are usually stonewalled’. And self-irony never leaves the team, they state.
LEA FRINGS, German RT news presenter:
“We are Putin’s devotees, puppets of the Kremlin and conspiracy theoreticians. Our brains are washed to such an extent that we are able to only be engaged in anti-American propaganda.”
Russia Today is part of Russian information agency ‘Rossiya Segodnya’. The Russian Federation is the only owner of it. Moscow allocates about 300 mln euro annually for information expansion in English, Spanish and Arabic.
BORIS REITSCHUSTER, Fokus magazine:
“We can compare this to pox. German viewers become disaccustomed to propaganda and don’t have immunity. For the years of democracy and freedom their organisms have grown out of the habit to see danger; that’s why they are very naïve when it comes to perceiving news.”
The German RT assures its viewers that NATO is to blame for Malayasian airline MH17 crash over the so called DNR. Speaking about Euromaidan, the channel never mentioned that ousted president Viktor Yanukovych was gaining Moscow’s support. Trying to prove that protestors were fascists RT’s journalists and editors are picking out separate shots.
“All started as a peaceful protest that demanded Ukraine’s president signed a controversial agreement with the EU. But even at that time one could predict where all that was going to.”
At the moment one can watch the most ideologised program broadcast on Fridays only on the Internet, including social media. And the number of followers is growing.
MARSILI CRONBERG, writer, RT’s viewer:
“A lot of people believe that reporting by our leading media is one-sided. That is why they are looking for an alternative to them. RT Deutsch is not a balanced journalism. They just want to fill information black holes.”
Germans who have nostalgia for the GDR are pretty excited about the new channel’s rhetoric. And vice versa, others are thin-skinned about raw propaganda of that time.
Russia Today plans to broadcast in 34 countries, covering over 130 cities, in 2015. The channel may be harshly criticized, but the number of its fans keeps increasing so far.
Jeanna Krőmer, Belsat
