On November 16, Putin awarded Mikhail Zvinchuk, founder of the Telegram channel “Rybar”, with the Russian Order “For Merit to the Fatherland” 2nd degree for his support of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Order from Putin

The Kremlin dictator has awarded a prestigious state award to a Russian tabloid blogger who had previously criticized Russia’s military actions during its large-scale invasion of Ukraine. Thus, Russia continues to increase its efforts to attract media bloggers and tries to make them loyal to the Kremlin.

Russian media blogger Mikhail Zvinchuk / photo: rosZMI

Earlier, Vladimir Putin included Zvinchuk, adding him to the Kremlin’s working group on mobilization issues on December 20, 2022. According to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), this was the Kremlin leader’s first concerted attempt to regain control of the segment of viewers who turn to Telegram for war news independently of Russian state media.

After Ukrainian counter-offensives in the Kharkiv and Kherson regions in the fall of 2022, when Russian state propagandists were unable to explain Russia’s military failures and the highly unpopular mobilization of 300,000 reservists, the style and focus of coverage of the “Fisherman” war changed.

This change in content and tone is quite significant and is most likely the result of Putin’s attempts to recruit prominent Russian media bloggers to re-establish the Kremlin’s dominance in the Russian-language information space.

It is possible that the reward Putin offered Zvinchuk was an attempt to encourage other media bloggers to offer their allegiance to the regime in exchange for praise and recognition from the Kremlin.

Control of Gazprom Media Holding

Gazprom Media Holdings, a subsidiary of Russian state energy company Gazprom, announced on November 16 that it has acquired a majority stake in a major Russian blogging agency. The company is likely trying to increase its control over the Russian media space.

Gazprom Media Holdings announced that it has acquired a majority stake (51%) in Insight People, Russia’s largest blogging agency. Gazprom Media Holdings owns the Russian video streaming platform RuTube, the Russian social network VKontakte, as well as many well-known Russian TV channels and radio stations.

What connects Gazprom Media and the head of the Kremlin

Gazprom Media is headed by Alexander Zharov, who led Roskomnadzor from 2012 to 2020. Gazprom’s president, Alexei Miller, has been managing this company for many years. Miller, in particular, has partners in various power structures, and the recent acquisition of Gazprom Media indicates a possible increase in Miller’s influence. Alexei Miller is known to have been a long-time colleague of Vladimir Putin and likely has ties to former head of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) and Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, as Patrushev’s sons previously held senior positions at Gazprom . .

Russian bloggers and the war in Ukraine: what is known

• Russia is trying with all its might to justify its invasion of Ukraine and by any means to show that Russian troops are fulfilling their combat missions. Bloggers from aggressor states are used for such informational messages. They worked with all their might to create the image in Russia that the Ukrainian counteroffensive had failed.
• Over the summer, Russian bloggers widely distributed footage from July 29, allegedly showing a Russian tank having recently crushed an entire Ukrainian company with armored vehicles. However, this video was shot on June 7 and is not accurate.
• In Russia, bloggers and “warmongers” actively support the war. ISW notes that war correspondents may have a monetary incentive. This serves as an impetus for them to regularly talk about the war in Ukraine, and their rhetoric is devoid of any criticism of the Russian government.