Page 17 - RusRPTNov20

As fellow journalist Oleg Dobrodeev told Ostrovsky, in 1999 'public opinion was against NATO's airstrikes [in Yugoslavia] and we had to reflect that change or be left behind.' A similar dynamic operates to this day: television not only shapes public opinion, but is also shaped by it.
Another factor is that many of those who no longer get their news from TV haven't in fact shifted to the internet. They've simply tuned out of politics entirely. This is particularly true of young Russians, and if anything it makes them more conservative. As the Levada Center's Denis Volkov admits, 'The massive rejection by youth of television in favor of the internet doesn't signify an alternative point of view, but a low level of knowledge about what is happening.' In other words, the shift to the internet isn't turning Russians against the state; it's just making them less engaged.
Furthermore, those who do use the internet to gather news don't necessarily find themselves exposed to liberal, anti-government perspectives. While there are multiple internet media outlets and social media networks of a liberal persuasion, there are significantly more of what one might call a patriotic/nationalist inclination. The shift from broadcast television is more likely to push Russians in the latter direction than in the former.
To some degree, this is happening. Yet another Levada poll determined that Russian youths were marginally more liberal than the population as a whole (11% of young Russians described themselves as liberal, compared with seven% of the general population). But the move in a nationalist direction was even sharper (16 and 10% respectively).
2.9 ​ ​EU imposes Navalny poisoning sanctions on Russia
The European Union imposed sanctions against six senior Russian officials​ and one scientific research institute in response to the use of a Novichok-type nerve agent to poison opposition figure Alexey Navalny on October 15.
The new sanctions were announced in the latest volume of the Official Journal of the European Union. The United Kingdom, which is not an EU member state, opted to impose similar sanctions, as well.
Who’s on the sanctions list?
· Alexander Bortnikov, director of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB)
· Andrey Yarin, the head of the Presidential Executive Office’s domestic policy department
· Sergey Kiriyenko, first deputy head of the Presidential Executive Office
· Alexey Krivoruchko, Defense Ministry deputy head
· Pavel Popov, Defense Ministry deputy head
· Sergey Menyaylo, presidential plenipotentiary envoy to the
Siberian Federal District
17 ​RUSSIA Country Report​ November 2020 www.intellinews.com