33-foot poster in Moscow accuses Russia's 2 leading independent news outlets of treason
A giant banner criticizing two independent Russian news channels was displayed in Moscow today, hung across the street from from the studio of TV Rain, the country's only remaining independent television station. The poster features the slogan “Watchdogs of the British regime,” and pictures two bulldogs wearing British flags and collars labelled “BBC.” TV Rain's logo is placed above one of the bulldogs, and the logo of independent news outlet RBC appears above the second bulldog.
The “arts community” of the Russian news and entertainment website Glavplakat has claimed responsibility for the creation and display of the 10-meter-tall (33-foot) poster. Glavplakat placed an announcement on its website explaining that the poster was a response to a statement by the British House of Commons detailing the cooperation between the British Foreign Ministry and Russian channels RBC and TV Rain.
The document states the Russian TV channels RBC-TV and TV Rain work with the BBC media empire, giving “Russian viewers information dictated by the British Foreign Ministry.”
- Earlier this month, the Russian newspaper Izvestia published an article about the BBC’s ties with RBC and TV Rain. The article claimed that these Russian channels receive funding for broadcasting BBC programs and promoting the interests of the British government.
- RBC representative Zlata Nikolaeva, asked about Izvestia's claims, told Voice of America that she is not ready to “comment on such stupidity." TV Rain CEO Natalya Sindeeva announced that her television channel does not receive any foreign funding.
- TV Rain has been broadcasting in Russia for four years. It has faced a series of hurdles over the past two years. First, major satellite television carriers in Russia dropped the station from its packages. Then, in 2014, its landlord at the Krasny Oktyabr business center in Moscow terminated its lease, and the channel temporarily set up shop in a series of private apartments. Now, TV Rain broadcasts from the Moscow design center Flacon.
- Most of RBC is owned by Mikhail Prokhorov, who ran as an independent candidate against Vladimir Putin in the 2012 presidential elections.