The Kremlin has limited media appearances by a group of military deputies
The presidential administration asked the loyal media to quote fewer State Duma deputies who spoke on military topics, Nestka found out.
The list of deputies who should not be too publicized included the head of the Duma Defense Committee Andrei Kartapolov, deputies-generals Andrei Gurulev, Viktor Zavarzin, Andrei Krasov and the head of the Committee on Family, Women and Children Nina Ostanina. All of them, according to the Kremlin administration, allow themselves excessive independence in their statements and criticism of the Russian troops. A source in one of the state media and an interlocutor close to the State Duma told about this “Layout”.
The instruction comes from representatives of the block of the first deputy head of the presidential administration, Sergei Kiriyenko. The parliamentarians who were on the list repeatedly spoke about the course of the war, including exposing the Kremlin in an unfavorable light, a source close to the lower house told Layout. In this regard, it was decided to quote them “only from [news] agencies and in a minimal amount if the news agenda requires it,” a source confirmed in one of the media that received the recommendations. “Instructions come to us from the [Kremlin] public projects department, from [head of the department] Sergei Novikov,” he explained.
The instructions were given to the media belonging to the Rossiya Segodnya group (it owns numerous publications, radio and TV channels, including RT), Rossiyskaya Gazeta, and the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (this group includes the Rossiya-1 and Rossiya-1 TV channels). 24”, “Radio of Russia”, radio station “Mayak” and other assets).
Representatives of editorial offices and channels were asked to keep these recommendations secret, the source said.
The mentioned deputies “got on the list of toxic” because of their statements, mainly regarding the course of the war, partial mobilization and securing the front. “After the start of mobilization, and in general since February, the information strategy of the authorities has not been developed,” explained one of the interlocutors of Nestka. “Everyone commented on who was into what, the Kremlin did not have time to issue instructions.”.
Thus, the head of the defense committee of the State Duma, Kartapolov (before moving to the State Duma, he was deputy minister of defense), in a recent commentary to RBC, admitted the possibility of personnel decisions due to complaints from the mobilized. And Andrey Gurulyov made a whole series of critical remarks. “After the surrender of Liman, he began to openly scold the Ministry of Defense,” the source recalled. It was Gurulev, together with the head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov, who criticized the commander of the Central Military District Alexander Lapin for the loss of the Ukrainian city. Nina Ostanina actively commented on the mobilization.
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