Following the restrictions imposed by the West of the main international media institutions of Russia, after the invasion of Ukraine, they have expanded their presence in other parts of the world, speaking in Africa, Balkans, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Latin America. While the press institutions have undergone budgetary discounts and even withdraw from certain regions, the Russian channels increased their audiences in a large part of the world, taking their place in some cases, reports the BBC.
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Since 2023, RT has opened an office in Algeria, has launched a TV in Serbian and started free training programs for journalists in Africa, Southeast Asia, India and China.
The television station has announced that he was going to open an office in India, while Sputnik has opened a newsroom in Ethiopia.
All this coincides with an apparent weakening of the presence of the Western press in some regions, against the background of changing foreign policy priorities or reducing budgets, forcing some newsrooms to reduce their size or even close.
Two years ago, the BBC closed its radio service in Arabic in favor of the digital service. Since then, he has launched radio services in Gaza and Sudan. In the same year, the Russian Post Sputnik launched a 24 -hour service in 24 hours in Lebanon.
Meanwhile, the International Broadcasting Service Voice of America, funded by the US government, has fired most of their staff.
“Russia is like water: it goes through the cracks,” explains Phenomenyl Kathryn Stoner, a political scientist at Stanford University.
Javier Gallardo, who lives in Chile, reports how one morning he opened the TV on the Telecanal station, but was intrigued to find that in his place there appeared with a green logo, RT, which broadcast images of war.
“What happens?” He asked. After 20 minutes, stopped. “I could not connect with him.”
It is believed that Telecanal, a private television channel in the country, gave up its broadcast space, former Russia Today. The authorities are investigating.
Content delivered according to audience
The countries outside the West “are a very intellectually, cultural and ideological territory due to anti -American, antiocycidental and residual anti -imperial feelings,” says Stephen Hutchings, professor of Russian studies at the University of Manchester.
Russian propaganda, he says, is intelligently spread: the content is calibrated for each target audience, and the ideological positions are adapted according to the region.
The television RT over perceived in the West as a “Russian and disseminating state actor,” he says. In other parts of the world, however, it is often considered a legitimate channel, with its own editorial line.
Rhys Crilley, a lecturer in international relations at the University of Glasgow, believes that RT reports can attract a general public: “People who are rightly worried about global injustices or events in which they perceive that the West has an involvement.”
A website like any other
At first glance, the international site of RT looks like a news site like any other and presents some news. “It is a very careful manipulation,” says Precious Chatterje-Doody, a university lecturer in political science and international studies at Open University.
Analyzing the international newsletters of the RT for a period of two years, between May 2017 and May 2019, it concluded that the news selection corresponded to certain narratives.
For example, researchers found that social disorders were prioritized as a subject of news when they took place in the European countries, while the account of Russian internal business had the subject of Russia's military exercises.
However, the post makes false explicit statements, such as the presentation of the annexation of Crimea by Russia as a peaceful “reunification”, denying the clear evidence of one's own military involvement.
Between 2018 and 2022, the researchers interviewed 109 people who followed the RT in the United Kingdom before it was revoked the broadcast license. Chatterje-Doody says he noticed that many have admitted that they realize that “RT is biased”, but that they have the tools needed to discern what is true why not.
However, based on her research, she warned: “The public is not necessarily aware of the precise ways in which RT is biased and from where the lack of honesty of the reports comes.”
A new attention paid to Africa
The biggest recent expansion of the Russian state press takes place in Africa, according to Professor Hutchings.
In February, the Russian authorities traveled to Ethiopia for the launch of a new Sputnik editorial center.
The RT also reoriented its channel in French to address the Francophone African nations, redirecting the financing from projects in London, Paris, Berlin and the US to the African continent, according to the editor-in-chief of RT.
Many Africans already have friendly opinions towards Russia – based on anti -economic and anti -imperialist feelings, and the memory of Soviet support for liberation movements during the Cold War.
RT launched its first online course for African reporters and blogge,
“We are among the best in checking the facts and we have never been caught distributing false information,” Alexey Nikolov told the students.
The instructor explained to the students that the attack with chemical weapons in the city of Syrian in 2018, committed by the Assad regime, supported by Russia, is a “canonical example of false news”, ignoring the conclusions of an organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons, which confirms that the attacks were carried out by the Syrian air.
The host also rejected the mass killing of Ukrainian civilians by the Russian forces in the Ukrainian city in 2022, cataloging it “the most famous making.”
Many seemed undisturbed by these distorted presentations – some have told the BBC that, from their point of view, RT is a regular television station, which is not distinguished from CNN or Jazeera.
A journalist from Sierra Leone admitted the risks of misinformation, but adding that each media institution has its own “values and style”.
From the Middle East to Latin America
In the Middle East, channels such as Arabic RT and Sputnik Arabic adapt their stories about the war between Israel and Gaza to attract the pro-Palestinian public, according to Professor Hutchings.
In other parts, as in Latin America, RT is also trying to expand its coverage area.
According to his website, RT is available free of charge in 10 countries in the region. Argentina, Mexico and Venezuela are among them. It is also broadcast on cable television in 10 other countries.
International News in Spanish on free television is “part of its success,” explains Armando Chaguaceda, historian and cuban-mexican political scientist, researcher at the think tank governance and political analysis (focused on civic education and promoting democratic culture).
In Argentina, the 52 -year -old Baigorria horny, recorded TV reports from RT and charges them on his YouTube channel, along with his reactions.
“Here, in Buenos Aires, the news focuses too much on this city,” he argues. “RT offers an overview of all places in Latin America and, of course, global news.”
“Everyone has the right to decide what he thinks is true.”
The impact
It is difficult to quantify the impact of the press supported by the Russian state worldwide.
The RT claims that it provides news over 900 million viewers from over 100 countries, claiming that it has obtained 23 billion online views in 2024.
However, as Rasmus Kleis Nielsen points out, a communication professor at the University of Copenhagen: “Availability is not a significant measure of public size.”
The figure of 900 million viewers is “extremely unlikely” and can be manipulated, he says.
Another narrative that persisted was the justification of Russia for the invasion of Ukraine. Russia presented the NATO expansion to the east and the connections of Ukraine with the Alliance as a key reason for its large -scale invasion, claiming that it represents a “threat to security” and that Russia acted in “self -defense”. Although it was dismantled in the West, this false statement persisted in the global southern.
“The idea … is a narration quite well received, especially in academic circles, in Mexico and Latin America in general,” says Dr. Chaguaceda on the argument of NATO expansion.
Some leaders of the global countries have hesitated to condemn the Russian war against Ukraine. On the occasion of the first vote of the UN General Assembly, after the large-scale invasion of 2022, a overwhelming majority of the countries condemned the war, but 52 countries voted against the resolutions or abstained from vote. These include Bolivia, Mali, Nicaragua, South Africa and Uganda.
Hutchings believes that the West loses its concentration by reducing media funding and “leaving the free ground for institutions like Russia Today.”
“The stake is big and we have a lot to lose … Russia is gaining ground, but the battle is not lost.”
