Interfax: State pollster denies Russian TV brainwashes viewers about Putin

File Photo of Russian Television Studio

(Interfax – October 29, 2014) Russian TV is not a zombie box as it speaks of President Vladimir Putin not only in glowing terms but also carries criticisms of him, the head of the Russian Public Opinion Research Centre (VTsIOM), Valeriy Fedorov, has said. He was speaking at a news conference in Moscow on 29 October, as reported by privately-owned news agency Interfax on the same day.

“A hypothesis that we have a zombie box which is brainwashing everyone and is not giving any alternative point of view falls into pieces like a house of cards. People do hear criticism of Putin,” Fedorov said, referring to a recent poll conducted in Russia on 25-26 October 2014.

As many as 50 per cent of Russians “are aware of criticism of Putin” and this rules out the biased approach at state television, he said. According to the recent poll, 52 per cent of respondents learn about criticism of the president by western politicians from newspapers, TV or Internet. Eighty-seven per cent of them consider these criticisms ungrounded and other 87 per cent are confident that they are generated by Putin’s independent policy, the poll showed.

Only 7 per cent of respondents believe that criticism of Putin is fair, the poll showed, as reported by state-owned Russian news agency TASS.

According to the pollster, today, 37 per cent of Russian residents receive information from the foreign media, whereas five years ago this number was less than 29 per cent. As many as 15 per cent of those polled read or watch foreign news everyday, 10 per cent – several days a week, 8 per cent – two or three times a month, and 4 per cent – few times a year. As many as 68 per cent of them consider foreign information about the Russian authorities as biased. Sixty-two per cent of respondents do not use these information sources at all (as against 71 per cent in 2009), the poll showed.

[featured image is file photo]

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