Why have the Russian media switched from “Armenian Maidan” to slamming the authorities of Armenia
Lifenews.ru, «Звезда», «Россия 24» and ORT television stations are mostly circulating misinformation about the recent days protest organized by “No to plunder” initiative against the electricity price hike. This footage prepared by these media outlets carry out the headline “a political Maidan in Armenia” without pointing out the demand that brought thousands of people to the streets. Russian mass media present the discontent in Armenia as political.
It is also obvious that the sections where the name of the Inter RAO UES Company who is the owner of the ENA are edited and erased in the airtime. It is obvious through the naked eye that this phenomenon contains a promotional nature. In the interview with “Aravot”, media expert Samvel Martirosyan noted that a change in tactics is noticed in the Russian media activities, and detailed, “On the first days of the protests, the Russian media, as usual, were operating in their usual manner. In other words, wherever they find signs of disobedience, they try introducing them as a US-funded anti-Russian campaign. They present these events under the same campaign, as a US-funded order against Russia.”
According to Samvel Martirosyan, in the next few days, the heavy artillery of the propaganda was pushed to the front line: the bloggers and those who has also worked duing the event in Ukraine. Samvel Martirosyan sees parallels in the coverage of Russian media between the protests against the electricity price hike and the Kessab events, when in both cases, an attempt was made to create an alternative reality. Back to the recent days developments, Samvel Martirosyan noted, “They want to create a reality that allegedly Armenia is collapsing and cannot survive without Russia.” According to the media expert, Russian Foreign Ministry has surprisingly changed the strategy and rhetoric. “Now, they are talking that the events in Armenia do not Maidan, but a domestic political problem, and they have begun slamming the authorities of Armenia in poor management of the country”.
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According to the expert, Russian mass media activities primarily are aimed at showing that there exists an external enemy that works against Russia. We were curious to know which of the media provide more or less reliable information about the developments in Armenia, Mr. Martirosyan replied, “These are: Medusa. Io, Dozhd TV channel and Echo of Moscow radio station. But those who are disseminating disinformation are many more.” We asked whether the stance of Armenian protesters towards the Russian reporters is justified when their activities are hampered and ridiculed, Samvel Martirosyan replied, “In one and a half day, the Russian mass media triggered a public against them, who was the least neutral towards the Russian media.” According to Martirosyan, Armenia has now appeared not in but the middle of the information war, it has become a unique platform, and Armenia’s mass media who are working selflessly has a big role in neutralizing this situation.
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN, “Aravot” daily
