So those looking for updates on what’s going on there are looking to neighboring Estonia, CNN’s Scott Mclean reported from his capital Tallinn for “Reliable Sources” on Sunday.
“Estonia’s eastern neighbors have long been addicted to Russian state television programming,” said Brian Stelter, CNN’s chief correspondent.
Estonia, a country of 1.3 million people, has taken in 30,000 Ukrainian refugees since the war began. Like Ukraine, it was a former Soviet state and still has a large Russian-speaking population and a well-established one Fear of Russian aggression. The majority of the population is ethnically Russian, particularly in the towns across the Narva River that separates the country from Russia. Many of Narva’s older residents do not speak Estonian well or at all.
“In the absence of a whole lot of Russian-language media in Estonia,” Mclean said. “Russian state media filled the void and gave people a constant dose of Kremlin propaganda.”
But now even that source has been cut off since the invasion. When Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, Estonia blocked many Russian news agencies and TV channels.
“A lot of people here [are] buy some systems to receive Russian channels,” said Vladimir Zavoronkov, chairman of the city council in Narva, Estonia’s third-largest city, which lies on the border with Russia.
Many buy antennas from electronics stores to receive Russian channels, and the more technologically advanced set up their own VPNs. he added.
Ilya Federov and his father Oleg, who live in Narva, connected one TV to a Russian satellite dish and another to an antenna, but they tune in only part of the programs they can receive.
“I can only see her for a maximum of 15 seconds because of the aggression, paranoia and blatant lies,” Ilya Federov said. “It’s crazy.”
Russian propaganda runs deep and the majority of Narva residents believe what they hear in these news, Oleg Federov said.
But Russian state media is not the only option. ETV+, a channel launched by Estonian Public Broadcasting in 2015, gives Russian-speaking Estonians access to reliable news about their own country and the world.
Anchors for ETV+ must be extra careful to cover the war. “Our viewers are ready to blame us or accuse us because they don’t believe us,” said ETV+ presenter Margarita Tanajeva.
“But we’re ready to talk to them. I don’t want to judge them… I’m willing to give these people time and make them believe me,” she said.