Sputnik, a Forced Road Comrade

Rodica MAHU,
Editor, Jurnal de Chișinău
One year ago, at the beginning of November, the Sputnik Multimedia Group was created as the successor of the „Golos Rossii” (Voice of Russia) radio station. On November 10^th, 2014, the new institution was presented as an international, state financed service with the purpose of fighting the „aggressive propaganda” of the West and offering “alternative interpretations” to events worldwide. The Sputnik media group is part of the “Rossyia Segodnia” (Russia Today) International News Agency (INA), which has incorporated the RIA Novosti state press agency and the Voice of Russia radio network. Radio Sputnik would, beginning with 2015, start to operate in 30 languages, in 130 cities of 34 states, while each Sputnik information center would have between 30 and 80 employees “the greatest part of the content being created at local level, by local journalists, keeping in mind local debates and requests of the local audiences”, the media group’s general manager Dmitry Kiselyov declared at the launch of the Media Group.
According to The Guardian, as a consequence of tensions reaching a level unseen since the end of the Cold War, the expansion of Sputnik news is just a component of the new media strategy promoted by the Kremlin. It will have regional centers in capitals like Beijing, Washington and Cairo, with bureaus in other big cities: Berlin, London, Paris, Kiev, Istanbul, but also Bucharest and Chisinau. The budget allocated to the INA Rossiya Segodnya for 2015, amounts to 120 mln. Euros.
Broadcasted illegally in the Republic of Moldova
In Moldova, Sputnik has a multimedia center formed from a radio station aimed at the local public (broadcasting in Chisinau on Univers FM 92.8 KHz frequencies, http://www.univers.fm), with an online radio regime, from the Center, a news agency (www.ria.ru), exclusive content and a press center. The broadcast time will increase, to gradually reach a 24 hour program.
Following our inquiry with the Coordination Council of the Audiovisual on the extent to which Sputnik radio station’s presence in the informational space of the R. Moldova is legal, they replied that “according o the general Conception of program services, Univers FM has no right to rebroadcast the Sputnik radio station. As a matter of fact, no radio station in the Republic of Moldova holds an agreement to retransmit the programs of the Russian Federation based Sputnik radio”.
The broadcast time will increase, to gradually reach a 24 hour program.
Anti-European mercenariate
We can, at the present time find some of the CDPP’s “magnificent” youngsters such as Ghenadie Vaculovschi and Victor Ciobanu on the sputnik.md website, together with Iurie Rosca and Sergiu Praporscic who was my colleagues at the “Flux” newspaper in the 1998-2000 period and also Lucia Popescu, a former colleague from Radio Moldova. Thus, in a comment article signed by Victor Ciobanu and titled “EU Member States, puppets of Brussels” (14.09.2015), the editorialist wonders “How much will the EU member states bear the joint slip into the pitfall and how much more time will the governments of each separate country be docile to the bureaucracy in Brussels?”.
In another article, entitled: „Moldovan expert: The EU is exhausted” (30.07.15), Valeriu Ostalep, director of the Institute for Diplomatic Studies and Security Issues is quoted as stating: „economists underline that it would be absolutely unjustified at the moment to discuss the accession or applying for the accession of Moldova to the EU”. According to him, „European officials pretend to have nothing in common with the calamity going on today in Moldova and seem to even be terrified of the state of affairs in here”.
Ultimative tone
On another, just as aggressive, tactical plan, anti-NATO ideas are also promoted, Brussels always being collided with New York. The following is a quote from the unsigned post: “What does Moldova stands to lose following its deviation toward NATO” (02.09.15): “If Moldova is interested in cooperating with NATO in the frames of the “Partnership for peace ” program while, at the same time maintain relations of good neighborliness with Russia, our country should maintain its neutrality, Victor Gaiciuc, former Minister of Defense and former RM representative to NATO has stated. At the same time, until now, Moldova didn’t solve its strategic problems: restarting the delivery of fresh and canned fruits, as well as other products on the Russian market.” The language of this press article can easily be confounded with the tone of an ultimatum formulated by a country about to enter a war.
The Ukrainian subject is treated unilaterally, exclusively, from one source: “Lavrov: Kiev attempts to disrupt the concept of the Minsk Agreements” (news, 11.09.15). “”Kiev tries to “turn everything upside down” and thus make the fulfillment of the Minsk Agreement provisions impossible”, the Russian MFA Chief has stated. The authorities of the Ukraine are trying to disrupt the concept of the Minsk Agreements regarding Donbas, rendering their fulfillment impossible, the MFA Chief of the RF, Serghei Lavrov has stated.
One more news in the “subtle” style of Sputnik: „Ambassador: the USA has suspended a number of projects in Moldova due to corruption”, posted on 06.10.15. At first sight, it has the features of equidistant news. And only the captions of the two symbolic pictures prove the author’s subversive attitudes: „Corruption is over. Candu creates workgroup” (under an image with some hands covering banknotes) and „Corruption in Moldova is invincible” (image representing a judge’s hammer).
Russiatoday.ro
In the frames of the new project, care was taken for the continuation, in Bucharest, of the site http://news.russiatoday.ro. Here’s a sample of “Romanian-Romanian” fraternity picked up from the Chisinau fields: „Russian journalist, close to Putin: Let’s face it, Romanians and Moldovans are the same people!” (21.09.15), from which we quote: “Famous Russian ultranationalist journalist and television moderator Maxim Sevcenko, a member of the Council for the development of civil society and human rights of the Russian Presidency, has relaunched the topic of the reunion between the Republic of Moldova and Romania in exchange to the annexation of Transnistria to the Russian Federation”. „We shouldn’t forget that the wish of a significant part of the Moldovan people is to unite with Romania”, he stated, while saying that the annexation of Crimea to Russia (in March 2014) has created a precedent for other regions of Europe”.
(independent.md, http://news.russiatoday.ro)
Let’s hope that journalists on the other side of the Prut will have sufficient character to avoid a mercenary’s work. They are not the only ones tempted by generous offers. Marek Biernacki, head of the Polish Parliamentary Commission for Special Services is convinced that “Russia is ready to offer a substantial amount of money and also organizational skills to create a so-called “fifth column” that would operate in Poland, especially on the Internet”, he stated. (HotNews.ro, 02.03.15)
„A lie is not a different point of view”
Linas Linkevicius, Lithuania’s foreign minister, thinks that “carefully wrapped lies are making their way towards audiences all over Europe (www.timpul.md, after euobserver.com, 24.09.15). „A T-90 tank in Ukraine is not just a mere “vehicle”. A lie is not a differing point of view. Propaganda is not a legitimate form of public democracy. Our naivety is the one stopping us from acting, and this in the conditions of an undeclared informational war”, Linkevicius claims.
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We find that journalism is transforming from a preeminently liberal and humanist profession into a dangerous one. That can start wars. As it happened in Crimea and the East of Ukraine, where mercenary journalists are decorated for their “merits” in the service of imperialist ideas in secrecy, like spies, in order not to be later lynched by the masses set free from the claws of manipulation.
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This material is published within the project "Freedom of expression and media development in Eastern and South-Eastern Europe and South Caucasus", implemented by CIJ during the period May-September 2015, supported by Deutsche Welle Akademie and financed by German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. The opinions expressed in this material belong to the authors and do not necessarily reflect the financer’s opinion.