Author: Badalian Vardan

European Council on Foreign Relations
Jan 8 2015

Armenia and the Eurasian Economic Union: The view from Yerevan

Commentary by Richard Giragosian
08th January, 2015

As the Eurasian Economic Union comes into force in January 2015, ECFR
has asked expert analysts from the current member states about their
hopes and fears for their country’s future as part of this Union.
Yesterday, we featured Belarus, today we are focusing in on Armenia,
and Friday we will take a look at Kazakstan.

For most Armenians, ushering in the New Year was a painful exercise in
frugality and fortitude. As they faced the twin pressures of a serious
decline in the Armenian currency’s value and a sweeping price rise on
essential foodstuffs, the final month of 2014 promised only more
economic pain. For the small and isolated Armenian economy, much of
this pressure was driven by the spillover from the economic downturn
in Russia, where the impact of the plummeting rouble and
Western-imposed sanctions was exacerbated by a sharp fall in the price
of oil. Yet for the longer-term future of the country, a much more
serious development for Armenia was taking place. New Year’s Day also
marked the start of Armenia’s membership in the Eurasian Economic
Union (EEU).

No looking back

Since 2013, the Armenian government has sought to put a brave face on
its surprising decision to sacrifice its Association Agreement with
the European Union in favour of joining the Russian-led EEU. Despite
the apparent setback presented by the “strategic U-turn”, many in
Armenia have come to accept the reality of surrendering to Russia.
Even the Armenian business class, including many small- and
medium-sized enterprises, have expressed support for the change in
direction, largely due to their trepidation about conforming to the
EU’s higher standards and investing in the necessary areas to make
good use of a free trade agreement with the EU. For many businessmen,
fear about and ignorance of navigating European market access makes
the old trade rules for dealing with Russia and other post-Soviet
markets more comfortable and familiar.

The economic implications for Armenia

For Armenia, the Russian-dominated EEU has always been defined more by
obstacles than opportunities. Among the many obstacles, the weakest
argument for Armenia to join the Eurasian bloc has always been the
economic impact. Beyond the structural impediment of the absence of
either a land connection or a functioning railway link to Russia or
other EEU members, the most serious and immediate impact on Armenia’s
economy will be caused by the need to adjust both its tariff rates and
its trade orientation.

The traditionally open and liberalised Armenian economy must adopt the
higher tariffs and more protectionist policies of the other EEU
members. This move will not only likely spark price increases, but
will also mandate a serious renegotiation over Armenia’s membership in
the World Trade Organization (WTO). On trade orientation, several
years of an EU-dominated direction of trade will have to be adjusted
and Armenia will have to prefer the markets of Russia, Belarus, and
Kazakhstan. And the paucity of economic benefits for Armenia from
these moves is perhaps most revealingly demonstrated in the allocation
of customs duties and tariff revenues among the member states. For
Armenia, the asymmetry is obvious: it has been granted a meagre 1.13
percent of the EEU’s total customs revenue.

At the same time, new EEU regulations may also inhibit the expansion
of one of Armenia’s most important and fastest-growing sectors. The
Armenian information technology (IT) sector accounted for roughly
one-third of exports in 2013, and about 5 percent of the country’s
GDP, up from a mere 1.7 percent in 2010. The IT sector expanded by 25
percent in 2014, with a combined output from some 400 IT-related firms
totalling nearly $475 million. But because much of the Armenian IT
sector relies on investment from the United States, the new IT-related
rules and poor intellectual property rights regime of the EEU and its
members could sink this strategically significant sector.

Visible, but not very viable

In the broader context, Armenia may be able to survive, withstanding
the pressure of being ever more firmly trapped in the Russian orbit.
Armenia may even be able to limit its mounting over-dependence on
Russia and to manage the economic fallout. However, any such survival
strategy rests less on any decisive move that Armenia can take and
more on the inherent weakness of the EEU.

Despite the ceremonial fanfare, the launch of the EEU marks the start
of a very different project than that originally envisioned. The union
is significantly more unattractive and even less viable than it was
first conceived to be, for three main reasons.

First, the “loss” of Ukraine as even a potential member seriously
undermines the economic and trade potential of such a union. Ukraine
has always been the “prize” for Moscow, and in spite of the seeming
“victory” of seizing Crimea, Russia’s own aggression has triggered the
loss of the sizeable Ukrainian economy, making the Eurasian Union much
less viable as a project for regional (re)integration.

Secondly, the serious impact of Western sanctions on the Russian
economy lessens the value and viability of the union. Moreover, in the
wake of the fall in the value of the Russian rouble and the decline in
world oil prices, Russia is no longer the economic dynamo it once was
– and the supposed Russian role as the engine for the EEU has also
greatly diminished.

The third factor driving the loss of appeal and attraction of the
union is that the motivation for integration rests largely on coercion
and pressure, and an impressive backlash has already been demonstrated
by both Belarus and Kazakhstan. For tiny Armenia, this may offer an
opportunity to hide behind these much larger naysayers and find a way
out without unnecessarily confronting or challenging Russia.

Regaining a degree of balance

Although the outlook for Armenia is bleak, the country also has a
second opportunity – to regain a degree of balance by salvaging its
relationship with the EU. Reflecting the degree of sincerity about
this in both Brussels and Yerevan, the Armenian government has been
able to rebuild much of its lost credibility and has embarked on new
talks over a draft “legal framework” as a foundation for Armenia-EU
relations. At the same time, Armenia has also been cautious in how it
has presented its re-engagement with the EU, seeking to pre-empt any
Russian pressure by highlighting (and exaggerating) its role as a
“bridge” between the EEU and the EU. Given the combination of the
rising costs and meagre benefits of the EEU, Armenia’s only real hope
at this point rests on containing the fallout from the economic
contagion and seeking to pursue a prudent but quiet “exit strategy.”

Richard Giragosian is director of the Regional Studies Center (RSC) in
Yerevan, Armenia and the author of ECFR’s 2014 publication on
Armenia’s Strategic U-turn.

Fresno Bee, CA
Jan 7 2015

Author to speak at Fresno State on early 1900s Armenian life

By Rory Appleton

Vahé Tachjian will deliver a talk on Armenian daily life from 1908 to
1915 at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 29 in Room 191 of Fresno State’s University
Business Center.

The lecture will open the Armenian Studies Program’s Spring Lecture
Series and will focus on Armenians in the Kharpert/Harput region of
the Ottoman Empire. It looks at first-hand accounts from the region
during the years leading up to the Armenian Genocide.

Tachjian is the director of the Houshamadyan Project, which looks at
the French occupation of Cilicia, Syria and Lebanon between the world
wars, Armenians in the Ottoman Empire and refugee problems in the
Middle East.

Glendale News Press, CA
Jan 6 2015

Armenian Christmas celebrations are a ‘community connection’ at local hospitals

Archbishops lead Armenian Christmas observations at two area hospitals.

By Arin Mikailian, [email protected] and Kelly Corrigan,
[email protected]

January 6, 2015 | 5:07 p.m.

Local religious leaders recited prayers and blessed water on the eve
of Armenian Christmas at Dignity Health Glendale Memorial Hospital and
Glendale Adventist Medical Center to celebrate the baptism of Jesus.

Nearly 100 people, including hospital staff, local officials and
patients, amassed near the 20-foot-tall tree in the west lobby of
Glendale Adventist Medical Center on Monday as Archbishop Hovnan
Derderian, who leads the Western Diocese Armenian Church, blessed
water and gata, an Armenian pastry.

PHOTOS: Glendale Adventist celebrates Armenian Christmas

The service has grown into an annual tradition, and the hospital’s
chief executive, Kevin Roberts, said the blessing of the water
observes Christmas without focusing on shopping for presents.

“It’s a great way to connect with a kind of ‘second Christmas,’ one
without all the commercialism,” he said.

A number of patients who weren’t able to spend the evening with their
families were wheeled into the lobby for the service and then later
the water and gata were delivered to patients’ rooms.

Dr. Emil Avanes said part of the reason he was in attendance was to
get in touch with his cultural roots and because of something he
believes helps people recover.

“A large part of what we do in medicine is healing that requires a
great deal of faith,” he said.

About 100 people gathered in the lobby of Glendale Memorial Hospital
Monday for a ceremony led by Archbishop Moushegh Mardirossian, Prelate
of the Western United States of America, along with other clergy.

Mardirossian told dozens of staff members, local residents and others
that he and other members of the clergy would bless the hospital and
its patients and employees, as well as the water, symbolizing the
baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River.

“The birth of our Lord is the greatest gift bestowed to mankind — the
manifestation of God’s infinite love,” he said. “It is a gift which
continues to give centuries later, which continues to transform hearts
and souls with both love and goodwill.”

He also asked everyone in attendance to thank God daily for “our
health and wellness” and for “the love of family and friends,” as well
as successes.

Jack Ivey, the hospital’s president, said Glendale Memorial’s annual
celebration of Jesus’ baptism is, at its heart, about bonding with the
community.

“It’s community connection at a deeper level,” he said. “It’s our way
of outreaching, as a community hospital… we sort of touch our entire
workforce because a lot of our workforce is Armenian, but I think it
brings people closer together that aren’t of Armenian descent because
they understand the holiday traditions as well.”

,0,7640374.story

2014 Important year in Genocide recognition campaign – Turkologist

13:16 * 07.01.15

The year 2014 marked an important divide in the Armenian nations’
decades-long campaign towards the recognition of Genocide, a
Turkologist has said, stressing the importance of the higher degree
of concentration on the question’s legal aspect.

Ruben Melkonyan, who is a deputy dean at the Yerevan State
University’s Department of Oriental Studies, made the remark as he
commented upon the Genocide issue’s predominance on the 2015
international agenda and the directly interrelated developments around
the Armenia-Turkey relations and Armenia’s blockade.

“We saw that the Turkish politics did not absolutely change in 2014;
what changed was only the packaging which represents that politics on
both the international arena and in Armenia,” the expert told Tert.am,
pointing out to the Turkish propaganda’s strong efforts towards
denying the Genocide and mitigating the ensuing negative consequences
as major developments of last year.

“For the first time ever in 2014, we became the eyewitness of a
condolence address by a Turkish premier, but only its title actually
reflected condolence as such, with all the rest being propaganda and
the repetition of Turkey’s preconditions with a slightly different
wording,” he said.

Melkonyan said he feels that Armenia is taking a tougher and tougher
stance on the Genocide recognition issue and the Armenia-Turkey
relations. As a glaring example, he cited Serzh Sargsyan’s UN speech
where the Armenian leader plainly “sent” the 2009 Zurich protocols “to
hell”.

“The Armenian society developed an essentially progressive
understanding to shift the moral aspect of the Armenian Genocide issue
to the legal domain,” he noted.

The expert said he thinks that the above developments will continue in
2015 which marks the big tragedy’s centennial.

“I predict a continuation of Turkey’s aggressive policies and an
involvement of maximum number of partners in that. And I do not rule
out the possibility of different statements by Turkic-speaking states.
Also, Turkey’s ‘soft’ propaganda will continue with different methods,
as they will try to feign certain processes very far from actual
developments,” he added.

Melkonyan said he expects the international community’s strong-worded
statements on the Genocide in 2015. “I further do not rule out a
recall or suspension of the Armenia-Turkey protocols by the Armenian
authorities, as they have become an end in themselves. The tough
rhetoric on the part of Armenia will continue. I also do not rule out
the recognition and condemnation of the fact of the Armenian Genocide
by several other states or authoritative organizations,” he noted.

As for a possible opening of the Armenia-Turkey border, the expert
said he doesn’t find such a scenario realistic in the present
circumstances.

“2015 is the year of commemorating our pan-national tragedy’s
centennial, so the Turkish propaganda tricks will be more than visible
now. No Turkish moves towards opening the border or anything like that
will be accepted. So no need to exaggerate the developments in an
insignificant part of the Turkish society, ignoring the essentially
negative anti-Armenian mindset that dominates the major part of that
society,” Melkonyan noted.

LIBAN
>. Il a conclu : >.

La célébration s’est terminée par la bénédiction de Sa Sainteté Aram I
et du chant du Catholicosat de Cilicie.

mercredi 7 janvier 2015,
Stéphane (c)armenews.com

TURQUIE
La Turquie ne permettra pas à l’Arménie de promouvoir les événements
de 1915 comme un génocide selon le chef de la diplomatie turque

La Turquie ne permettra pas à l’Arménie de promouvoir les événements
de 1915 comme un génocide a déclaré le ministre turc des Affaires
étrangères Mevlut Cavusoglu dans une interview à la chaîne TRT Haber
TV.

Il a dit que la Turquie observe les activités de l’Arménie sur cette
question, ajoutant que ” l’Arménie et le lobby arménien ont été
particulièrement actifs sur cette question en 2014. Mais cela ne
signifie pas que la Turquie va laisser cela sans réponse”.

Mevlut Cavusoglu a déclaré que la Turquie est prête à créer une
commission pour enquêter sur les événements de 1915.

mercredi 7 janvier 2015,
Stéphane (c)armenews.com

AZERBAIDJAN
Le retrait de l’Arménie des terres de l’Azerbaïdjan est nécessaire à
la prévention des incidents selon Bakou

“Tout d’abord, le retrait des forces armées arméniennes d’occupation
des territoires azerbaïdjanais est nécessaire pour prévenir les
incidents sur la ligne de contact entre les armées azerbaïdjanaise et
arménienne” a déclaré mardi le porte-parole du ministère des Affaires
étrangères d’Azerbaïdjan Hikmet Hajiyev.

Hajiyev a ajouté que l’Azerbaïdjan a fait cette déclaration à
plusieurs reprises.

Il a commenté les remarques faites par le porte-parole pour le
Département d’Etat américain Jen Psaki sur la situation tendue sur la
ligne de contact.

Psaki a déclaré que les autorités américaines sont troublés par les
rapports de violations du cessez-le-feu ces derniers jours dans le
Haut-Karabakh, selon un message posté sur le site Web du Département
d’État américain.

“La poursuite de l’occupation des territoires azerbaïdjanais par
l’Arménie et la présence des forces armées de ce pays sur les
territoires occupés de l’Azerbaïdjan est la principale menace pour la
paix et la stabilité dans la région”, a déclaré Hajiyev.

Il a déclaré que les parties doivent tenir des négociations sur le
traité de paix, ajoutant que Psaki a également approuvé cette
proposition au cours de ses remarques.

mercredi 7 janvier 2015,
Stéphane (c)armenews.com

Daily Sabah, Turkey
Jan 6 2015

Racism in Germany has reached a desperate level

OZAN CEYHUN @ozanceyhun
Published19 hours ago

When taking into consideration the question of racism in Germany, I
think it should not be compared with racist parties or movements in
other countries such as Golden Dawn in Greece and the National Front
Party in France.

There is a saying in German: “Bevor wir andere kritisieren, sollten
wir erst einmal vor der eigenen Tür kehren,” which translates as, “We
should first clean our own doorway before criticizing others.” And
Germany urgently needs to take its own advice.

Now, when certain groups with close relations with the Armenian
diaspora, and groups who are against Turkey in Germany were preparing
to stage demonstrations against Turkey in May, Prime Minister Ahmet
DavutoÄ?lu met the representatives of the non-Muslim minority
communities at a lunch in Istanbul. Ecumenical Orthodox Patriarch
Bartholomew, Deputy Patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church Peter
Stefanos, Vicar-General of the Chaldean Catholic community of Turkey
Francois Yakan, Patriarchal Vicar of the Syriac Orthodox Church Yusuf
Çetin, Turkish ambassador to the Vatican Mehmet Paçacı, Patriarchal
Vicar of the Syrian Catholic Church in Turkey Yusuf SaÄ?, Apostolic
Administrator of the Armenian Catholic Archbishop Levan Zekiyan, Chief
Rabbi Ä°shak Haleva and Archbishop of the Armenian Apostolic Church
Aram AteÃ…?yan attended.

During the meeting, it was decided to construct a new church in
Istanbul’s YeÃ…?ilköy neighborhood, and a fact that some circles in the
EU insist on ignoring was once again underlined ` non-Muslims living
in Turkey are content with the new Turkey.

However, Muslims living in Germany are anxious.

The members of a new German “intellectual,” racist organization, the
Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the Occident (PEGIDA),
gather every Monday and march against Islam. And they have recently
drawn swastikas and written racist slogans such as “down with Islam,”
“Turks will be killed” and “swine Turks” on the walls of Burg Primary
School, Leibniz High School and other buildings located in
Schüztenplatz Square in the town of Dormagen, which is 593 kilometers
from Dresden where almost no Muslims live.

This is not the first ugly attack in Dormagen. On Dec. 21, 2014, at
around 4:20 a.m., the Dormagen Ditib Mosque was the target of a racist
attack. The Police launched an investigation into the attack, in which
racist and hateful words were written on the walls and the minaret of
the mosque. The Düsseldorf Prosecutor’s Office, coordinating the
investigation, announced a reward of 1,500 euros in order to identify
the offenders and shed light on the incident.

According to 2013 statistics, 62,521 people (30,730 male and 30,791
female) live in Dormagen. It is quite a small town. And the total
number of foreigners living in Dormagen is 6,623. In Dormagen, which
has 25 churches including 14 Catholic, nine Protestant and two other
churches, there are only four mosques, and one of them is under
construction. Seemingly these mosques have annoyed someone.

The investigation launched after the Dec. 21 attack in Dormagen
seemingly could not yield tangible results. Roughly two weeks later,
the skinheads of Dormagen made their second move.

Dormagen is only one instance. If racists and neo-Nazis could
comfortably act in a small town like Dormagen, then what is the
general picture in Germany overall, whose population is 82 million?

Muslims living Germany are rightfully anxious. Between August and
December 2014, a total of 15 attacks were organized in Germany, 11 of
them targeting mosques.

Turkish-origin Muslims in Germany still anxiously read the writing on
the backs of members of the neo-Nazi group, the National Socialist
Underground (NSU), which is notorious for the murders publicly known
as “döner killings,” which are not yet solved.

The situation is also grave in other parts of the EU. According to the
latest report by the Turkish Parliament’s Human Rights Commission, “in
2014, 38 attacks were organized in Germany, eight attacks were made in
Austria, seven in Bulgaria, two in Belgium, Netherlands and Swede, and
one in France.”

Racism and xenophobia in Europe have evolved into Islamophobia in recent years.

Formerly, racists and neo-Nazis used to write “Turks, get out!” and
now they are writing slogans such as “down with Islam” or “get out,
Muslims!”

Calling innocent Muslims peacefully living in EU countries to account
for the deeds of the terrorist organization, the Islamic State of Iraq
and al-Sham (ISIS), is the greatest harm that could be done to them.
But unfortunately, this is the current case.

As PEGIDA emerged in Dresden, the assaults against Muslims and mosques
have increased in Germany.

All EU countries, particularly Germany, should not keep their heads in
the sand, but must realise the level Islamophobia has reached. Not
acknowledging racism will not make it go away.

Not only the EU Commission and the European Parliament, but also the
governments and parliaments of all EU member countries must decide on
urgent measures and immediately implement them.

The counter-protests staged by thousands of people against PEGIDA and
racism raise hopes. However, an increase in effective police measures
is critical. Just like the ongoing determined fight against ISIS, a
determined fight is also required against the racist terrorists and
their proponents who adopt violence as a fighting technique.

Times of Central Asia
Jan 6 2015

Eurasian Economic Union expands with accession of Armenia

Tuesday, 06 January 2015 07:21
Written by Alexan Talin

YEREVAN (TCA) — Armenia is now the fourth member country of the
Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union, joining with Russia, Belarus and
Kazakhstan.

To become a full fledged member, Armenia had to take 126 measures out
of 267 “prior to accession”. All of them have been taken. Certain
provisions relating to the implementation of these items are included
in the Treaty on Accession. Within the frameworks of the accession
procedure the experts of the Eurasian Economic Commission made more
than 40 visits to Armenia.

Armenia has become part of the Treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union,
signed by the Presidents of the EEU member states — Alexander
Lukashenko, Nursultan Nazarbayev and Vladimir Putin — on May 29, 2014
in Astana, as well as other international treaties forming the EEU
legal framework. From now on, Armenia undertakes corresponding
obligations, and therewith gets access to the EEU single market with
170 million citizens.

By joining the Eurasian Economic Union, Armenia gets fully involved
into implementation of the Eurasian project aimed, on one hand, at
forming of four freedoms: free movement of goods, services, capital
and labor force; and on the other hand, at creation of one of the key
economic centers of evolving architecture of the multi-polar world.

The fourth partner expects a number of positive effects from
integration. Among the key ones are an increase of goods turnover due
to elimination of barriers and minimization of administrative
expenses, increase of mobility of labor force due to introduction to
the single labor market, increase of stability of economic development
due to reduction of economic isolation effect, development of
infrastructure projects, participation in drawing up of the agenda
using the mechanisms of the Eurasian Economic Union.

The Treaty on accession provides for full involvement of Armenia’s
representatives into the activities of the EEU governance. Upon entry
of the Treaty into force the President of Armenia becomes a
full-fledged Member of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council, and the
Prime Minister becomes a Member of Intergovernmental Council; the
full-fledged representative joins the Eurasian Economic Commission.
Armenia will be represented by three Members in the Board of the
Eurasian Economic Commission.

The Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) is a supranational governing
body of the Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia (CU) and
the Single Economic Space (SES) of the Eurasian Economic Community.
The main task of the EEC is to ensure conditions for the CU and SES
operation and development as well as to elaborate economic integration
initiatives within the framework of the CU and SES.

Other countries that are supposed to join the Eurasian Economic Union
in the near future are the Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan.

Ex-Soviet countries on front line of Russia’s media war with the west
By Alec Luhn in Moscow
Tuesday 6 January 2015

[Summary: The Kremlin’s plans for the global expansion of state media
have been greeted with suspicion, especially in the countries of the
former USSR.]

When Dmitry Kiselyov, the Russian state television presenter known for
his scandalising monologues, announced the opening of the Kremlin’s
new website and radio service Sputnik News, he stressed that it would
continue the tradition of Soviet propaganda to counter what he called
the `aggressive’ pro-American bias of the western media.

Unveiled as a replacement for the government’s international radio
broadcasting service Voice of Russia, Sputnik News primarily differs
from its predecessor in sheer size–the new outlet’s content will be
produced in 130 cities in 34 countries around the globe, according to
Kiselov.

Each Sputnik hub will employ between 30 and 80 staff members, and an
expanded team of 100 will reportedly work in the office in the
Ukrainian capital Kiev, where a new government that Russian state
media decried as a `fascist junta’ has adopted an association
agreement with the European Union and is fighting a simmering conflict
with Russia-backed rebels in the country’s east.

`The majority of [Sputnik News] content ¦ will be prepared locally, by
local journalists, taking into account local discussions and the
demands of the local audience,’ Kiselyov said, announcing the changes
in November.

The Kremlin’s media strategy

Amid tensions on a scale not seen since the Cold War, the plans for
Sputnik News are just one component of the Kremlin’s changing
international media strategy. Moscow has greatly increased projected
spending for its foreign-focused media outlets for 2015, budgeting
$400 million for its RT television channel and $170 million for
Rossiya Segodnya, the state news agency that includes Sputnik News and
is headed by Kiselyov.

The expansion of Russian state media and its increasingly anti-Western
content has prompted European Union lawmakers to propose creating a
joint Russian-language television channel to provide an alternative
source of information.

A communications researcher with close ties to the Estonian government
also told the Guardian that Estonia’s public broadcasting company
plans to launch a Russian-language television channel next autumn to
counter pro-Kremlin media.

`Free media made according professional journalistic standards is the
best antitoxin to disinformation and propaganda,’ said the researcher,
who did not want to be named.

While some argue that Sputnik News and other Russian media initiatives
will promote debate, concerns have also arisen that the
`decentralisation’ of state media represents a huge expansion of the
frontline in what many are calling an information war between Russia
and the west.

And for some, that front line appears to fall across Russia’s
neighbours–the countries of the former Soviet Union–where many have
watched events in Ukraine with growing concern.

Sputnik News

Sputnik News will have hubs in major capitals including Beijing,
Berlin, London, Paris and Washington DC, but its offices are
especially concentrated in Russia’s near abroad; with the exception of
Turkmenistan, all former Soviet republics will host a Sputnik hub, as
well the Georgian breakaway provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia,
which Georgia considers to be under Russian military occupation.
Besides English, the Sputnik News website now has local-language
versions for Abkhazia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, China, Germany, Spain, and
Turkey.

[Map: 130 cities covered in 34 countries worldwide. Georgia includes
stations in Sukhumi, Tskhinvali, Yerevan and Tbilisi. Baku has a
separate station, Yerevan does not. ]

In Tajikistan, Rossiya Segodnya has already been aggressively hiring
the `best local journalists and prominent human rights activists, as
well as journalists from the western media, with the promise of higher
salaries and professional development,’ according to the editor of a
local independent media outlet who asked not to be identified.

Rossiya Segodnya and Sputnik News declined to comment for this article.

Proponents have argued that initiatives such as Sputnik News are no
different than the United States’ long-running Voice of America and
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty services, which are funded by the US
government.

`I don’t know of one large country that hasn’t engaged in
foreign-language broadcasting,’ said Andrei Bystritsky, former Voice
of Russia chairman who is now dean of the communications, media and
design department at Moscow’s Higher School of Economics.
`Broadcasting in the languages of its neighbours is an absolutely
logical part of Russia’s open, transparent foreign policy.’

Journalism standards

But the journalistic standards of Russian government-owned media have
been questioned, especially during the Ukraine crisis. Britain’s
broadcasting regulator issued a warning to RT in November after
concluding that it had `failed to preserve due impartiality’ in four
broadcasts about the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

On Thursday, the National Radio Company of Ukraine announced it was
beginning broadcasts in the Russian language that would reach Ukraine
and the European part of Russia. Officials in Kiev have said Ukraine
is ramping up its foreign broadcasts to improve the country’s image in
Russia and Crimea.

A recent report on Russia’s `weaponisation of information’ published
by the Institute of Modern Russia, a New York-based think tank run by
the son of former oligarch and Putin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky,
argued that the Kremlin is wielding outlets like Sputnik News to not
just persuade, but also to `sow confusion via conspiracy theories and
proliferate falsehoods.’

`To compare Voice of America and RFE/RL with Russian propaganda is not
right,’ said Belarusian politician and economist Yaroslav Romanchuk,
who heads Mises Centre, a think tank that promotes laissez-faire
capitalism. `On the one hand we are talking about mass media that are
putting out certain point of information but with standards and
multiple voices. On the other hand, we have the promotion of military
actions and an information war.”

In its 85-year history, Voice of Russia–known in Soviet times as
Radio Moscow–broadcast in Russian and a variety of foreign languages,
but it wasn’t until 2008 that it started broadcasting in some of the
languages of the newly independent countries of the former
USSR–specifically Armenian, Kyrgyz and Moldovan. Sputnik News,
however, will publish and broadcast in 30 different languages,
including English and the languages of all former Soviet republics
except Turkmenistan, Belarus and Lithuania, according to its website.

Its broadcast languages will also include Abkhaz, Ossetian and Crimean
Tatar, which is spoken by the Muslim minority whose leaders objected
to Russia’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula this year.

Pro-Russian media already reaches a huge number of homes across the
former Soviet region. In the Baltics, the First Pribaltisky Channel
rebroadcasts Russian state-owned Channel One, which claims to reach
250 million viewers around the world. Russia’s population is about 143
million.

Unlike the previous generation, however, many young people born after
the fall of the Soviet Union in the Baltics don’t learn Russian.
Nerijus Maliukevicius, a political science lecturer at Vilnius
University who studies Russian media, believes this could partly
provide the rationale for Sputnik’s expansion into English and local
language programming.

`I consider the coming of Sputnik to our region to be a twist in the
overall propaganda strategy,’ said Maliukevicius. He believes the move
indicates that `Russia is worried about the younger generation, the
English-speaking generation, and that they would use narratives and
techniques similar to RT to gain ground in this segment.’

A Sputnik News radio host in Moscow who previously worked at Voice of
Russia said the new outlet seemed to be more `politicised’, as are
other state-owned media. The host asked to speak anonymously out of
concern for job security, since the Moscow office has been cutting
staff in departments such as sport, culture and Arabic language.

Broadcasting in the languages of its neighbours is an absolutely
logical part of Russia’s open, transparent foreign policy

In its first month, Sputnik News–whose tagline is `Telling the
untold’–has given extensive coverage to the Ferguson protests against
police brutality in the US, criticised policies such as Washington’s
embargo of Cuba, argued that Russian gas is the best option for Europe
and that France should complete the sale of two Mistral warships to
Russia despite international sanctions against Moscow over the Ukraine
crisis. But on its debut, it also featured an interview in which
Polish white supremacist Mateusz Piskorski claimed that the United
States’ secretly `Trotskyist’ foreign policy had grown into a global
threat.

`Previously, you didn’t hear as much of this intonation that takes you
back to the Soviet Union,’ the host said. `I hear how my producer
interviews an expert, and before each question he describes the
situation in the way he wants to hear commentary about it. It seemed
that earlier the questions weren’t phrased in such a way.’

Suspicion

Concerns about the aims of expanding Kremlin-backed media outlets are
especially palpable in Russia’s EU member neighbours, the Baltic
states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which all have significant
Russian-speaking minorities, as does Ukraine.

Sputnik has not yet begun broadcasting in these countries, but the
communication researcher said Sputnik has been setting up a web-based
service in Tallinn and is quietly recruiting journalists.

Previously, you didn’t hear as much of this intonation that takes you
back to the Soviet Union

The researcher said the website would be especially effective if used
as a `source-laundry asset’–putting out viral web stories that would
then be republished by local news outlets and on social media.

`Journalists working in Estonian-language media are rather suspicious
of Russian messaging,’ the researcher said. `This would not be always
the case if Estonian language content reaches them via their social
media contacts.’

Yevhen Fedchenko, director of the journalism school at the National
University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, agreed that local-language internet
content from Sputnik would be more effective than radio broadcasts.

`The Russian information on Ukraine is coming from suspicious websites
like Russian Spring, and you can say this is propaganda,’ Fedchenko
said. `But if it’s coming from other sources and would attract eyes of
web users, it would dilute information available in Ukrainian
throughout the web.’

In such a sensitive political climate, there are concerns that Kremlin
media outlets could spark tensions between ethnic Russians and
national majorities. After signing the EU association agreement, Kiev
has toyed with the idea of Nato membership, and the Baltics have
welcomed increased numbers of US and Nato troops in recent months,
moves that Russian President Vladimir Putin denounced in a recent
German television interview. A government poll in Latvia recently
found that ethnic Russians are more supportive of Moscow’s position
over Ukraine than that of the west.

`This agenda to also have an information channel broadcasting in local
languages is probably a solution of how to talk not only to the
Russians but also to the Latvians and Estonians in Latvia and Estonia,
to change their opinions or ¦ get them to ask more questions about
things like Russia’s actions in Ukraine,’ said Maris Cepuritis, a
political science lecturer at Rigas Stradins University who has
studied the Russian media.

`In the last few years there have been lowered tensions in society.
Both Latvian- and Russian-language speakers are moving toward centre,
and there are only some limited radicals on both sides,’ Cepuritis
said. `If the presence of Russian television and Sputnik are
increasing and continuing the propaganda, they could change this.’