| Type | Radio network and website |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Availability | International |
| Owner | BBC |
| Key people | Sarah Gibson (Head of Service) |
| Launch date | 1946 |
| Official website | bbcrussian.com |
The BBC Russian Service (Russian: Ру́сская слу́жба Би-би-си́) was part of the BBC World Service's foreign language output, one of 33 languages it provided.
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The BBC Russian Service began broadcasting on 26 March 1946.
However during World War II there were sporadic broadcasts to the USSR in Russian only. Most of these broadcasts were after 1942.
These were mainly short news bulletins or announcements relating to UK Foreign Office policy in Russian from 1943 onwards but often weeks or months apart.
In the cold war era the service broadcasts were severely jammed. Despite this, it tried to bring to listeners in USSR information they were deprived of, including works of writers and dissidents who could not publish their work at home, such as Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Jammers were finally turned off in late 80s, as perestroika took hold.
The BBC Russian Service broadcasted strategically throughout Russia and some former Soviet countries on short and medium-wave radio.
The Russian Service had issues with AM and FM transmission in Moscow and St Petersburg in 2005-2006. It cleared formal obstacles such as lack of licences. It disrupted FM broadcasts again since November 2006.
The BBC Russian Service partnered with Bol'shoe Radio (Russian: Большое радио) FM broadcaster in Moscow between April and August 2007. Daily broadcasts alternated between the Russian Service and Radio Moscow. On 17 August 2007 Bol'shoe Radio notified the BBC World Service that it planned to stop transmission of BBC programming in Russian as of that afternoon. BBC content was not aired as usual at 1700 (Moscow time); the station was ordered by its owner, the financial group Finam, to pull the shows or risk being taken off air altogether. The BBC planned to appeal against the decision.[1] In its 2007 Foreign and Commonwealth Office Annual Report the House of Commons' Foreign Affairs Committee concluded that "the development of a partnership with the international arm of a Russian state broadcasting network puts the BBC World Service's reputation for editorial independence at risk".[2]
Masha Karp, Martin Dewhirst, Victor Suvorov, Vladimir Bukovsky, Oleg Gordievsky criticized the BBC Russian service for giving less coverage to view points outside of those approved by the Russian government.[3][4]
The criticism ignored the fact that Alexander Litvinenko’s last interview from his hospital bed was with BBC Russian and it had featured a full spectrum of views about his death.
An article in The Economist suggested that the BBC's desire to stay with local transmitters in Russia may conflict with its neutrality.[5] BBC World Service denied it and said the problems it faced in acquiring carriage on FM in Russia emanated from the growing impact its distinctive programmes were having with audiences rather than weakening the quality of its output. They said it was the awkward journalistic questions the BBC had asked that inspired the authorities to bring persistent pressure to bear upon its FM partners to drop its programmes until the threat of losing their licences altogether became too strong. In November 2008 the BBC World Service announced a far-reaching strategy rethink, seeing most of the Russian Service's standalone news bulletins shut and two blocks of current affairs programming widened. The strategy envisioned closure of longer, lighter feature programmes and aggregating some of their elements such as insights on British culture to a new weekend programme.
The news drew sharp criticism from British experts on Russia who argued that the BBC World Service weakened its editorial line under pressure from Kremlin and that it lost crucial links with British culture and political thought.[6]
The BBC World Service responded that the changes were necessary to solidify radio output at peak audience times coupled with lack of FM frequencies throughout its target audience and restrictions imposed by the Russian Government.
BBC World Service said that far from dropping analytical and cultural programming, as claimed, the BBC Russian service was strengthening the provision of journalism about politics and culture, and giving it space within high-profile programmes seven days a week at times when most listeners were available. They also argued that their limited budget would be better spent on creating a better website – which is an area of growth in news consumption and which the Russian authorities had not yet attempted to censor or block.
They also argued that their limited budget would be better spent on creating a better website – which the Russian authorities had not yet attempted to censor or block.
On 21 April 2009 the BBC Russian Service relaunched their website in a new wider template that corresponded with other language services such as Portuguese, Spanish, Persian, Urdu and Vietnamese.[7]
On 26 March 2011 the service changed to publishing and broadcasting entirely over internet.[8]
This program includes:
This program includes:
and Anna Dementyeva, Konstantin Eggert, Pavel Aksyonov, Oleg Antonenko, Oleg Mikhailov, Rafael Saarkov or Mikhail Smirnov in Moscow.
This program includes:
This program includes: Interviews with key cultural and other news makers, audience reaction, and regular slots such as ‘Ostorozhno, Lyudi’ (Осторожно люди!)
Earlier in 2008 Konstantin Eggert, the Moscow Bureau Editor of the BBC Russian Service, was made honorary Member of the Order of the British Empire with the assistance of the British Embassy in Moscow. Mr Eggert was hired by the BBC despite having served in GRU, Soviet Military Intelligence, in Yemen. Mr Eggert announced his resignation after over a decade at the BBC early in 2009, but has since re-appeared as a part time presenter on the BBC Russian Service morning show.
He is a member of the Royal Institute of International Affairs (London) and member of the board of “Pro et Contra”, quarterly journal of Carnegie Endowment Moscow Center. He lectured on Russian affairs at the German Foreign Policy Association (Berlin), Wilton Park (UK) and Geneva Centre for Security Policy.
Konstantin Eggert is an honours graduate of the Moscow University Asian and African Studies College (history and Arabic language).
The service hired the following journalists,
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