Russian influence on news media in Belarus

This article investigates Russian media influence in Belarus during the second half of 2010, when an “information war” broke out between Moscow and Minsk. Samples of news content are analysed to reveal the varying portrayals of Russia generated by leading broadcasters and publishers; interviews with media professionals shed light on the forces which shaped the news. The article considers the outcomes of the information war and argues that the impact of Russian news exports lay more in their capacity to provoke than their capacity to “elicit attraction” as envisaged by the literature on soft power.