Three ex-employees and one that still works at a federal channel shared their stories on TV propaganda in Russia.

This article is based on the monologues of four people, published by COLTA.RU, that describe Russian federal TV, which has been under the control of the government for a long time and works as a propaganda machine. Eugeny Orlov, the ex-Deputy Senior Editor of Rossiya 24 and Rossiya 2, who lost his job for supporting Alexey Navalny in July 2013, recorded the conversations with the ex-employees of VGTRK. Dmitry Sidorov prepared the story of an ex-employee of REN TV and Stanislav Feofanov, a producer at TVCenter.

An ex-employee of VGTRK told about the staff meeting in February 2014, when the Senior Editor announced the beginning of the ‘cold war’. Not the information war, because everyone already understood that it had started much earlier. But the ‘cold’ one, which many people perceived as throw-back. The Senior Editor said that 70’s and 80’s compared to the new era are baby talk; that is why all not willing to participate should find a different sphere of activity outside the informational channel. “Everyone else was welcomed to the club. Few people left overtime, quietly, without creating any drama. Everyone else stayed.”

“People in top management were not fools: they discussed all subtle aspects within a closed circle instead of the large editorial meetings of 25-30 people. After the Friday meetings at the Kremlin, the heads of the channels gathered the closest top-management. Then the information went to a lower rank, until it reached all those who needed to know. The politics of the channel were absolutely impervious, which is also part of the ‘cold war’: everything is enclosed, no open discussions.”

The editorial meetings formed the agenda. If it was Ukraine, it had to be covered as thorough as possible: one report a day from Crimea, Donetsk and Kiev. “In March 2014, after the referendum, the traditional task was to feature at least one original story from Crimea every day to tell how the territory was developing at that time, how the science and industrial arts was thriving, and how the prosperity and wellbeing of the new citizens was rising.”

“Everything was controlled manually. When the heads of the countries talked about peace at the first meetings in Minsk, the words fascists, banderovtsy and junta were banned from being used on air. When the situation rolled back, everything resumed. When Strelkov started taking over cities, he got a lot of airtime on all platforms. When the government needed to withdraw him into the shadows, the channel stopped putting him on air that much.”

The propaganda machine started bringing incredible numbers: the shares of Rossiya24 increased by 1.5 times, then double- and triple-fold compared to the pre-war times.

“Unlike the Georgian war, the system worked ideally, having been sharpened for weeks, months and years.“

“There was no competition between the channels. The order from the Administration of the President warned not to try to compete with each other, or compete on who is the most exclusive. It was a massive stream: people exchanged pictures, speakers, contacts. Different holdings, different shareholders and different media structures – all unified. A new joint propaganda body came to life.”

“Around 40-50% of all employees participated in the March of the Millions to the Bolotnaya Square, but they stayed with the channel for simple reasons – families, mortgages and credits. On top of that, everyone understood that there was nowhere to go. Some downed their sorrows in wine, some in drugs. Others went to the ‘internal immigration’, reading books on the weekends and trying to forget what happened during the workweek.” For the source, it became a tragedy: he understood that he had been involved in ignominy for 1.5 years.

He felt that around 50% of people at the channel were like him; 25% were convinced and 25% did not care at all. The latter would have worked at Khodorkovsky’s channel should he receive the seat of the President. “If the situation suddenly changes, people will not be able to come back to normal journalism and normal standards, just because they do not know such. The channels will have to hire new, fresh people and teach them.”

An ex-staff member of the informational broadcast at VGTRK told the story about an emergency meeting in Kremlin with the participation of all Executive Editors. The Senior Editor of the channel where the source had been working received a printed plan, which included exactly what, when and who to invite as experts. Now, if such issues are being discussed at the channel, they always include calls from higher authorities. The Senior Editor has the right to cover the story about a crash in the Greater Moscow Area; but when it comes to big-league politics, war and peace – he has no latitude.

The ‘manual mode’ covered even the weather forecasts: the channel had to invite Vilfand (the head of the Hydrometeorogical Center in Russia) to tell the audience that the winter was going to be tough and cold. “You ask: What if it will not be cold? However, even if the team and the audience understands that the winter is going to be warm, the general tendency is to make people believe that other countries depend on Russia: ‘we will cut the gas supply and you will all freeze’. “

“The situation has reached the point when the television per se does not exist anymore. Even if you work at a culture department, they will tell you which director they like and which they do not. You can either relax and enjoy what you do, or not work and leave in case you understand that you cannot do this any longer.”

An ex-producer of REN TV admitted to lying to one stringer while making a report on Oleksandr Muzychko (known as Sashko Bilyi). The team introduced themselves as representatives of an American channel and said that they wanted to show that he was a real person, a good character who fights for the right reasons.

When the Ukrainian conflict started, the enemy stopped being general and became concrete. The atmosphere in production did not change, however: lunch as scheduled, train as scheduled. Natives of Donbass and other Ukrainians worked for the channel, and none of them had a problem with covering stories the way they ‘needed to be covered’. According to him, the difference between the prostitutes and journalists is that the first ones do it with their bodies, and the latter – with their brain.

Stanislav Feofanov, producer (NTV, REN TV, TVCenter) said that he witnessed the beginning of the Ukrainian conflict being a part of Marianna Maksimovska’s The Week, where he worked since Euromaidan and until the withdrawal of troops from Crimea.

He said he does not remember cases of direct censorship on that show, claiming that maybe the management of the channel (REN TV) discussed these topics with Maksimovska directly. It, however, was clear that the Week was on the verge of a shut down. When MH17 crashed, it was impossible to cover the story in the same way all the previous events were. All the other channels screamed of junta and castigators, who shot down the aircraft. When the staff was on vacation, they received a text message from Maksimovska, which said that the show had been cancelled.

He said that everyone understands who does the real propaganda on Perviy and Rossiya. He cannot say why, though. He gave an example of his mom, who is ‘zombied to the level that it is not clear on what to talk to her about’ except for domestic business. Kiselev and Mamontov are on her TV all the time, which makes Feofanov ask himself: ‘How can I lie to my mom?’.

According to Stanislav, he feels that now is the time when people need to think about the conscience more than about the status. “How do you look yourself in the eyes? In the mirror? Can you live with this? Most of people do live with this, of course,” he said.