ethnicity & nationhood on russian state- aligned tvpromoting an image of multi- ethnic harmony, underscoring
ethnic diversity as the country’s strength. These assertions were,
not unsurprisingly, highlighted in news bulletins. On the other
hand, the confidence these claims exude is not borne out by the
fact that the level of news coverage of inter- ethnic relations actu-
ally drops at politically sensitive moments. At the lowest point it
accounted for only 4.2 per cent in May 2012, the time of Putin’s
inauguration as president. Already prior to this, during the entire
presidential election campaign, the media largely refrained from
reporting on related topics. According to our Channel 1 and
Rossiia interviewees, reporters receive instructions during certain
periods not to report on issues of a potentially inflammatory
nature, including, specifically, inter- ethnic relations.^5
The under- reporting of ethnic issues is partly connected to
unresolved tensions deriving from the Russian Federation’s status
as a multi- ethnic, multi- faith state. Russian nationalists tradition-
ally see ethnic Russians as marginalised by the state, and other
nationalities as favoured, but our word frequency analysis of the
term ‘Russian’ (russkii) indicates that the state- aligned media are
far from neglecting things Russian.^6 In fact, as the context of the
usage of the terms russkii and rossiiskii confirms, the Russian
language, Russian culture and Russian Orthodoxy are seen as
the key binding force in the Federation, and the role of the state
as a key factor in creating a pan- Russian (rossiiskii) national
Figure 11.4 Salience of ethnicity- related news, Vremia and Vesti