The same day that Russia launches the new website and radio service, CNN gets taken off the air, a top newspaper editor is forced to step down, and a leading magazine gets a note of warning.
The Kremlin on Monday launched a brand new global propaganda effort called Sputnik as it seeks to build on the success of its English-language propaganda channel Russia Today. Sputnik will comprise a website and radio, and will broadcast in 30 languages from "multimedia hubs" based everywhere from London to Rio de Janeiro to New Delhi and Washington, the Moscow Times reported.
The new global effort comes nearly a year after the Kremlin suddenly "liquidated" RIA-Novosti, its international news conglomerate and formed Rossiya Segodnya, under which Sputnik now falls. Rossiya Segodnya is headed by Dmitry Kiselyov.
The new project was announced by Kiselyov, who is Russia's propagandist-in-chief and its most colorful on air personality.
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"We are against the aggressive propaganda that everybody is fed with and that imposes a unipolar model of the world," Kiselyov said during the opening ceremony, the Moscow Times reported. "We will say what others are silent about. The world is tired of one country thinking of itself as exceptional."
He's referring, by the way, to the U.S.
When Kiselyov was appointed head of Rossiya Segodnya, here's what he said about how the conglomerate's outlets would cover their country and the world: "[O]ur country — Russia — needs our love."
"[I]f we are to speak about traditional politics, then of course we would like it to be associated with love for Russia," he told employees. "That does not mean that we cannot talk about problems. One hundred percent. I have not said that, and I am emphasizing this. But a hostile attitude...can be left to private media, if someone is prepared for everything."
Rossiya Segodnya, like Russia Today television, is 100% financed by the Kremlin. (To keep things confusing: Rossiya segodnya is how you say "Russia today" in Russian.)
