TV STATION THAT’S UK MOUTHPIECE FOR KREMLIN
With its slick graphics, jacked-up music, endless ‘human interest’ videos and an ‘ alternative’ world view that revels in conspiracy, the Kremlin-funded tV and internet news and current affairs broadcaster, Rt, has energy and appeal, especially to the young.
in the world of Rt — otherwise known as Russia today — an AngloAmerican plot lurks around almost every corner, while Russia is the victim of a ‘fake news’ offensive that seeks to portray it as the bogeyman on the world stage.
Based in Millbank tower overlooking the thames, the UK bureau is Vladimir Putin’s mouthpiece here — part of a £200 million global information campaign (Rt broadcasts on tV and the web in some 100 countries and claims an audience of 70 million) which, its critics say, seeks to undermine Western values and interests to the Russian president’s benefit.
to this end, video clips of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn this week— who cautioned against rushing to blame Putin for the Salisbury nerve agent attack — promoted his statesmanlike qualities. theresa May, on the other hand, was edited to appear defensive and shifty after announcing sanctions against Russia.
Staffed in London mainly by Western journalists, a cursory viewing of Rt might suggest a respectable international broadcaster in the mould of the BBC, Sky and CNN.
it broadcasts daily, a mix of news bulletins, talk shows — on which many peers and MPs, including Mr Corbyn, have appeared — and documentaries.
its viewing figures in the UK are minuscule (560,000 people tune into Rt at some time during the week, compared with 6.1 million for Sky and 10.4 million for BBC News), but its output is amplified by Youtube channels and social media feeds which cater for an audience of ‘metrosexuals and bums’, according to one rival Russian channel.
And while it is true that many stories are delivered impartially, this
selective impartiality appears to be a strategic ploy. According to Ben Nimmo of the Atlantic Council, an American international affairs think-tank: ‘[Rt’s] job in quiet times is to build up an audience, so it can propagandise to them in crises. You must not confuse Rt with bona fide journalism: not all its output is propaganda, but its purpose is.’
Whenever Russia interests are at stake — as in Ukraine, Crimea and Syria — it pumps out programmes, videos and tweets that almost invariably toe the Moscow line.
in 2015, for example, it accused the BBC of ‘staging’ a chemical weapons attack in Syria for a news report, and digitally altering the words spoken by an interviewee. (UK tV regulator Ofcom found Rt to be in breach of its code.)
Rt’s editor-in- chief, Margarita Simonyan, a Russian journalist who once covered the Kremlin, has compared Rt’s mission to a military enterprise, saying that, in the media age, the broadcaster has to be ready to push the Moscow line at ‘critical moments’.
The attempted assassination of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia is one such moment. Allegations of Russian involvement have been dismissed by Rt as the product of paranoia and hysteria in Britain.
Or, as one of its online columnists put it, the ravings of a ‘baying mob’ which has uncritically accepted its government’s assertion that the toxin used in the attempted murders (Novichok) could only have come from a Russian laboratory.
On thursday night, on BBC 1’s Question time, former BBC journalist- turned- Rt presenter Afshin Rattansi went so far as to accuse Ms Skripal of also being a spy. Mr Rattansi, who presents the Rt programme Going Underground, said: ‘ Obviously, everyone
condemns this attack — it’s terrible for the police officer and these two spies.’
It was an allegation for which he produced no evidence whatsoever.
In the resulting Twitter storm, his accusation against 33-year- old Yulia, who cannot defend herself because she is likely still in a coma, was branded ‘disgusting’.
It is, however, a suggestion that will now linger on the internet.
Mr Rattansi, born in Cambridge to a family who moved here from Kenya and who previously worked on Radio 4’s flagship Today programme before decamping to Iran’s Press TV channel, has been RT’s frontman in recent days.
ASKED if he believed the Russian state was behind the attack in Salisbury, he replied: ‘I really don’t know. We cannot believe our governments any more — the way we used to just because a prime minister stands up and says, “the security services have told us”. Those days are over.’
When Mr Rattansi — who has previously tweeted about how accusations of antiSemitism in the Labour Party are part of a ‘Zionist onslaught’ smear campaign against Jeremy Corbyn — was announced as a member of the panel this week, Tory MP Sarah Wollaston tweeted: ‘Why is Question Time giving a platform to RT, a mouthpiece for Putin? Hope other panellists walk out in disgust.’
Ms Wollaston was echoing the views of several MPs who are calling for RT’s UK operation to be closed- down as part of Government sanctions against Russian interests in the UK.
Former Labour minister Chris Bryant asked in the Commons: ‘Can we just stop Russia Today broadcasting its propaganda in this country?’
Fellow Labour MP Stephen Doughty urged the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport ‘to look at reviewing Russia Today’s broadcasting licence’.
On Question Time, Mr Rattansi said such views were an affront to free speech.
His RT colleague and fellow talkshow host, Alex Salmond — the former SNP leader and First Minister of Scotland — was also in defensive mode this week, insisting that RT wasn’t a ‘propaganda station’. One of his guests on Thursday was former MI5 officer Annie Machon, exgirlfriend of the rogue MI5 officer David Shayler who was prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act in 2000.
She muddied the waters about responsibility for the Salisbury attack by telling RT: ‘It is usually the State-level actors who have the capability of producing this sort of agent.
‘However, in terms of who might have used it, that is a different question. To say that if it is a Statemade agent it must be a state attack is disingenuous, at best.’
In other words, the nerve agent might have originated in Russia but that doesn’t mean Russia is to blame.
Ms Machon is something of a conspiracy theorist herself, who has previously linked British intelligence services to the death of Princess Diana, and claimed that on 9/11 the Pentagon was hit by a U.S. missile, not a plane.
Anticipating criticism, Mr Salmond — who has been dubbed a ‘useful idot’ for his involvement with RT — said: ‘I hold no brief from the Kremlin, nor am I required to. No one has tried to influence the content of this show in any way, shape or form whatsoever.
‘By definition RT has not been a propaganda station because it is regulated under a UK licence by Ofcom. Yes, it has had breaches of the Ofcom code, but so have Sky, ITV and BBC.’
Fifteen breaches for RT, in fact — including that report wrongly accusing the BBC of doctoring Syrian footage.
Ofcom has previously warned RT that it risks having its UK operating licence revoked because of its dependence on the Putin regime.
And in a letter sent to RT’s parent company, ANO TV-Novosti, on Tuesday, the regulator said it would review RT’s status as a ‘fit and proper’ broadcaster if investigating authorities determine that there has been an unlawful use of force by the Russian state in the UK.
During an interview on the BBC’s Today programme on Wednesday, Mr Rattansi said that ‘conflation’ of the Salisbury attack with an Ofcom review was a threat to Press freedom.
He warned that if RT in London was closed, the BBC would, presumably, ‘ instantly be kicked out of Russia’, while countries allied to Moscow, like China, might also hit out against ‘Natogovernment journalists’.
Indeed, in response to calls for RT’s closure in the UK, the Russian foreign ministry has warned that if such action is taken ‘not a single British media outlet will work in our country’.
As MPs, peers and others who have appeared on RT — some for money — run for cover, the Labour leadership is divided.
Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell has said he will no longer appear on the channel and is advising Labour MPs to follow his example. But Mr Corbyn has promised only to ‘ review’ his party’s involvement with the broadcaster.
One MP who thinks that RT should be allowed to continue broadcasting is former Tory minister Andrew Mitchell, who has appeared a number of times (unpaid).
‘I would not be in favour of closing down RT in London, although I understand why it is an issue,’ he says. ‘ The reason is, I tend to denounce what Russia is doing when appearing on RT.
‘ So, for example, when the Russians were bombing Aleppo in Syria and killing innocent people . . . RT carried my comments and they were broadcast in Russia.
‘I have always thought there is some benefit in getting my views across on the Continent and in Moscow — and we must also consider the risk of retaliation against the BBC.’
In the meantime, RT carries on regardless. Its motto is ‘Question more.’
Though not, it seems, when it comes to the motives and actions of one Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.