What war threat? Russian state TV plays down Moscow’s role in Ukraine crisis
- Western diplomats, analysts and others scrutinise Russia’s state media coverage of Ukraine for any drum beats of war
- Russia state TV in recent days has often focused on other issues such as the Beijing Winter Olympics and Omicron
Nato is scrambling to beef up its eastern flank and Western governments have warned of crippling economic sanctions if Russia invades Ukraine, but watching Russian state TV provides little sense, for now at least, that war may be imminent.
Russian state TV – vital for the Kremlin’s public messaging over 11 time zones – has often focused in recent days on other issues such as Russian athletes’ hopes for the Beijing Winter Olympics or rising Omicron cases.
“At the moment, there’s no sense the enemy is at the door and that we’re starting a war soon … That’s not happening at all,” said one Russian media analyst, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
In their reporting on Ukraine, Russian state media say Western “panic” is fuelling the tensions, along with US troop reinforcements to the region and arm supplies to Kyiv – not the presence of around 100,000 Russian troops near Ukraine’s border.
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“They’ve invented it (the Russian threat) … The Americans have been scaring themselves about a Russian invasion for months,” a reporter for the Vesti news programme told viewers.