Putin’s secret service
How Russia keeps lid on news it doesn’t like
The poisoning of a former Russian agent and his daughter has dominated the media in Britain and much of the world in the past week.
But one country not seeing the same level of coverage has been Russia itself.
Leading Russian analyst Andrei Ostalski says much of the largely state-controlled media failed to acknowledge the attempted murder of Sergei Skripal and his daughter until details began to emerge on the internet.
The journalist said coverage which did follow included wild theories suggesting British agents had carried out the attack on home soil.
Ostalski spoke of how the poisoning was viewed in Russia – and how Vladimir Putin’s government are dealing with the issue.
Speaking on BBC Radio’s Good Morning Scotland yesterday, he said: “For a few days, most Russians were totally unaware of what happened in Salisbury on March 4.
“The reason is that the majority of Russian citizens get all their information about their country and the world from Russian television, which is very tightly controlled by the authorities.
“What is not covered by official TV news is simply not happening.
“Then the point came, after a couple of days, when it became really difficult to ignore as the information was leaking via the internet and other sources.
“At the same time, as has become customary when the country is suspected of serious transgression or crime, all kinds of wild conspiracy theories, often contradictory, start to emerge. For example, a very popular newspaper carried a lengthy interview with a former officer of the military intelligence agency, GRU, who seriously claimed that poisoning people is a longstanding tradition of the British intelligence service and it is their British style – not the Russian one.
“Another radio station ran an interview with an expert, a former officer with the FSB intelligence agency, who built a rather convoluted theory that it was Ukraine and the Ukrainian mafia who were behind the attempt to kill Sergei Skripal and his daughter.
“Another station hinted it was not by chance that the incident happened so close to Porton Down military laboratory where allegedly all kinds of toxins and nerve agents are kept.
“Then came kind of a thunderbolt on the number one evening television programme, where the presenter said mockingly that he does not recommend traitors, or the enemies of Russia, go and live in England.
“He said, ‘Something is not right there. Maybe it is the climate – but in recent years there have been too many strange incidents – people get hanged, poisoned, die in helicopter crashes and fall out of windows in industrial quantities’.
“This was said by the deputy head of the most important Russian television company, Channel One.
“He is responsible for news coverage on the channel and he is very close to the Kremlin and is heavily decorated and is seen as very close to Mr Putin and Prime Minster Medvedev.
“Other Russian officials, for example the Russian ambassador to Ireland, have pushed the same line, claiming ‘British territories are very dangerous for certain types of people’, meaning people who Mr Putin does not like.
“So it sounds like a concerted campaign trying to terrify the Russian dissidents and enemies of Mr Putin in Britain.”
Ostalski said there were other Russian newspapers or news outlets which took a less progovernment line – but they were in a small minority.
He said: “There are very few independent voices left. There has been a concerted campaign going on for many years to silence them.
“But there are a few left, for example, radio station Ekho Moskvy and Novaya Gazeta newspaper. These two at least have tried to present a more objective picture of what has happened and what are the theories and possible explanations.
“But those two have a very limited audience and the government tolerate them because they think they are not important.
“The main impressions are formed by television with 80 per cent of people following the line they are being pushed by the TV.
“But interestingly, there was a poll on Echo Moskvy and 87 per cent of those people who took part believe it was Russia who was behind this crime.
“Probably the majority of Putin’s supporters also believe it.
“But they take it differently – that it is evidence of Russia becoming great again.”