Cooperation between the Kremlin and state broadcasters dates back more than two decades, said Mr Gatov, a former Russian journalist and an expert on state propaganda. Every day, the Kremlin provides broadcasters with a list of topics for discussion. The closely guarded document, known as the “temnik”, is delivered to senior officials from VGTRK and other organizations, outlining issues the Kremlin wants to see addressed positively or negatively, along with positions to endorse and people to criticize , said Mr. Gatov, who has seen specimens.
The Kremlin’s tight control of the media has increased since the invasion of Ukraine, but people’s confidence in what they watch is diminishing as the war continues and its violent reality becomes harder to hide, said Vera Tolz, a professor at the University of Manchester who has studied Russian media for the UK Parliament and the European Union. “There are cracks,” she said.
In the early days of the war, what was not explicitly spelled out in the Kremlin orders was left to television producers to fill in.
According to the documents, the United States was a common target. Every day emails circulated with long lists of news clips and viral posts that served as a palette to paint a bleak picture of the United States.
In early February, weeks before the invasion of Ukraine, producers flagged a clip of President Biden refusing to answer questions about sending troops to Poland, reinforcing the idea that America was eager to fight. A New York Times story about Ukraine’s aggressive information war against Russia was also recast as evidence of the country’s dishonesty. Another, from Britain’s Daily Mail, showed Mr Biden picking his teeth.
As the war continued, producers sought clips about the fallout in the United States. One came from a local northern Alabama news program about stickers pasted on gas pumps where Mr. Biden said, “I did.” Another video, showing a US supermarket running out of food, came from a viral Telegram post. It seemed to soon after inspire a broadcast titled, “Oil Shock and Empty Shelves: Trump’s Grim Prophecy Comes True.”
In March, Denis Davydov, a Washington-based VGTRK reporter, flagged a seven-year-old YouTube post, which has resurfaced, alleging that the United States and NATO had fueled Russia’s hostility toward Ukraine.
