State television successfully downplays disaster at home while imprinting major incidents that take place abroad on Russians’ memory, a new poll shows.
A study conducted by the Levada Center independent pollster has found that more than 90 percent of Russians get their news from state television at least once a week.
In a separate survey asking Russians to list the most memorable events taking place last month, the pollster found that people often named storms, floods, and fires.
Events in Ukraine, North Korea, and Syria ranked in the top five most mentioned events, and a botched London tube explosion that injured two dozen passengers came in sixth place.
Meanwhile, domestic events such as a wave of bomb hoaxes that began on Sept. 10 affecting hundreds of thousands of people in over 100 cities, the controversy surrounding the film “Mathilde” about Tsar Nicholas II’s affair with a Polish ballerina, and the arrest of theater director Kirill Serebrennikov made little impact.
Only nationwide local elections in September appeared to stand out, ranking as the second most memorable event among the surveyed Russians.
“This is likely a reflection of the news agenda of the largest television channels,” Levada said.
The survey questioned 1,600 Russians across 48 regions from Sept. 15 to 19.