Baltic States – CIS, Legislation, Markets and Companies, Russia, USA

In an article published Wednesday, The Washington Times indicates that about 30% of the populations of Estonia and Latvia speak Russian, and 8% speak the language in Lithuania. These people have long watched television programming, including news, produced in Russia. Those broadcasts often have reflected a pro-Russian bias that has concerned Baltic leaders.

Andis Kudors, executive director of the Centre for East European Policy Studies, told The Washington Times that in Latvia, three of the six most popular TV channels are Russian-owned. They transmit a steady diet of anti-Western messages into the country. Kudors believes the broadcasts undermined Russian speakers' integration into Latvian society.

"How can you unite two groups if they are living in different informational spheres with different interpretations of events?" he said.

The Russian TV channel RTR Rossiya, for example, recently covered a dispute between the Latvian government and the Russian organizers of a popular song contest with a pro-Moscow bent that was clearly designed to embarrass Riga, according to Kudors.

Last year, NATO opened the Strategic Communications Center of Excellence in Riga in part to counter Russia's media influence in the region. In one of its first reports, the center found that Moscow's influence over the mass media was a powerful tool in its aggressive policies.

The Washington Times explains that the Baltic States are not trying to counter Russia's propaganda with their own propaganda. Uldis Lielpeters, deputy state secretary for the media at the Latvian Ministry of Culture, said officials preferred to offer Russian speakers quality journalism as an alternative to Moscow's state-controlled channels rather than spend money on spin.