RTVI: An Attempt to Play on Both Sides

Throughout its history of more than two decades, the Russian-language international TV channel RTVI has worked its way from being an asset belonging to a disgraced Russian oligarch to a media outlet controlled by businesses affiliated with the Russian authorities. The channel boasts a 20-million strong audience across 159 countries and aims at those speaking Russian and living outside the territory of Russia. The management considers the USA, Israel, and Germany to be the main targets of its broadcasting. RTVI is organized as a network, comprising separate and formally independent entities in the key countries where the channel is present. The chapter argues that manifest in RTVI’s broadcasts is an attempt by the Russian authorities to carry out a more sophisticated policy on the international media market, rather than just working through outlets under a direct command system. As such, the example demonstrates poor efficacy and miscoordination of the “hidden strategy of management” in the complex interaction with the mass media environment. Still, over the years, the channel’s initial background allowed it to keep a reputation of being in opposition to Russian authorities. This allowed RTVI to avoid heavy sanctions and restrictions at a time when Russian TV channels in the West faced the prospect of being comprehensively banned, in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.