For Russian President Vladimir Putin, separate news broadcasts were allegedly prepared on state television, which removed undesirable information and emphasized a positive agenda. This was revealed by Dmitry Skorobutov, the former editor-in-chief of the "Vesti" program on the "Russia-1" channel.
Dmitry Skorobutov, the former editor-in-chief of the "Vesti" program on the "Russia-1" channel, stated that there was a practice within the structures of the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (VGTRK) of preparing separate news broadcasts for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In an interview with the channel "And Then Graham Spoke," referenced by the UNIAN agency, Skorobutov revealed that within the editorial office, the Russian leader was referred to as "The Main Viewer."
According to him, after the regular evening broadcast aired, some employees continued to work on a special version of the program.
"After which the producing team remained. We had instructions on which news to keep in this broadcast, which to add, where to embellish, where to remove something, so that Putin would later be shown the ideal picture of the wonderful Russia of today," the former editor claims.
Skorobutov explained that such broadcasts were then transmitted to the president through the structures of his press service. He stated that the task was to create the most favorable representation of what was happening in the country.
If these claims are true, it indicates the existence of a separate information stream intended exclusively for the top leadership of the state.
Skorobutov asserts that this practice began to take shape after the mass protests on Bolotnaya Square in Moscow in 2011.
"They were all shaken by Bolotnaya, and they tried to start isolating him from real events," he said.
In the former editor's opinion, over time, a similar approach spread to information about the war in Ukraine. He believes that the Russian president does not receive a complete picture of what is happening.
As an example, Skorobutov cited the incident involving the sinking of the cruiser "Moskva."
"Putin was kept in the dark for more than a week that he no longer had the cruiser 'Moskva'," claims the former state television employee.
No independent confirmation of these statements is provided in the publication.
The question of how objective the information received by the Russian leadership is regularly becomes a topic of discussion among experts and analysts. Due to the closed nature of the decision-making system, it is often impossible to verify such statements.
The protests on Bolotnaya Square began in December 2011 after parliamentary elections in Russia. At that time, thousands of people took to the streets, claiming violations during the voting process. In the spring of 2012, the protest movement continued, and ahead of Putin's next inauguration, clashes occurred between demonstrators and police, after which dozens of criminal cases were initiated.
Skorobutov's statements are yet another testimony to how, according to former employees of Russian state media, a system of information filtering for the top leadership could have been established in the country.
