The outcome of the parliamentary election in Russia has made headlines in almost every newspaper in the United States. But much of this coverage has focused on what the opposition says about the poll. Russians living in the U.S. are saying the media there
Nikita Fedorov, a Russian native who has been living and working in the United States for 16 years, says he doesn't get news of his native Russia from the American media. “I get it first from Russian Internet sources, and then I watch Russian television on the internet,” he said. On December 3, the day following the election, the Washington Times published an Associated Press’ article on its front page. It starts with: “Vladimir Putin's party won a crushing victory in parliamentary elections yesterday, paving the way for the authoritarian leader to remain in control even after he steps down as president.” The paper's foreign editor David Jones told RT that the word ‘authoritarian’ was perhaps “judgmental”. “If I had been editing the story myself, I might have removed that word. Apart from that one, I don’t think there is anything problematic,” he added. The plan was for a follow up article written by one of the paper's staff journalists – diplomatic correspondent David Sands. Sands said the focus was on the conduct of the election – were they fair, were they representative. Many U.S. papers put the spotlight on the opposition. Before the election, the shots showing Russian opposition leader Garry Kasparov being arrested were played over and over again by many channels around the world.