MOSCOW — Faced with international criticism over the Yukos Oil Co. crackdown, the war in Chechnya and a perceived rollback of democratic freedoms, the Russian government announced Tuesday that it would launch a 24-hour satellite television station in English to offer a glimpse of the world through Russian eyes.
Officials overseeing the $30-million-a-year project, dubbed Russia's BBC by its backers, said the broadcasts would remain outside direct government control but would present a Russian perspective on issues such as the war in Iraq and the proposed European Union constitution, a view not usually heard in the international mass media.
Backers hope to have the service, Russia Today, operating by the end of 2005. Financing for the first year's budget will come from a combination of government and private lending sources that have yet to be determined. In the future, they see a mix of government funding, grants and advertising revenue.
Analysts said that the service would almost certainly act as a Kremlin mouthpiece but that its financial viability would be determined by its willingness to present alternative viewpoints and a realistic view of political events unfolding in Russia.
"It is obvious that the Kremlin is not satisfied with the current information being reported about Russia and wants to create a new image for the country," said Manana Aslamazyan, director of Internews Russia, a nonprofit organization that supports independent media.
"It is an effort to create an external image of the 'managed democracy' that we are building and to show it in an attractive way," she said. "But I hope that the Kremlin will have enough political foresight to understand it is necessary to show a real picture of Russia, if they want people to watch it."
The announcement followed a report last week that a unit of the state-controlled natural gas giant, Gazprom, was buying a majority share of the influential daily newspaper Izvestia.
The television project is reportedly the brainchild of Mikhail Y. Lesin, a wealthy media businessman and an advisor to President Vladimir V. Putin. It is being shepherded by RIA Novosti, the official Russian information agency.
"Many foreigners are surprised to see that Russia is different from what they see in media reports. We will try to present a more balanced picture," said Margarita Simonyan, a former Kremlin reporter for state television who has been appointed editor in chief of the project.
