, Columnist
Putin Blows $1 Billion on Media Toy
Putin scraps a pet media project in favor of blunter and cheaper propaganda.Â
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Propaganda cannot be subtle or timid. It should be blunt and hard-hitting. And it shouldn't cost too much.
That was the message Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered yesterday by ordering the liquidation of RIA Novosti, until now Russia's premier government-owned news agency. Putin's decree stunned RIA's managers, who had not been told in advance. He also added insult to injury by appointing television presenter Dmitri Kiselyov, whose loyalty to the Kremlin notoriously eclipses his interest in facts, as head of the successor organization, called Russia Today.