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ABSTRACTThe Middle East is one of the ‘unreliable links’ in the international security system. This became apparent once Iran began developing its nuclear program decades ago, and in recent years, the program has reinforced the challenges to international security. The steps taken by the UN and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as well as US sanctions have not yet achieved positive results. Although Russia formally supported these sanctions, its political interests and attitude to Iran differ significantly from that of the United States and its allies. Russia seeks to consolidate its position in the region, challenging American policies. This article investigates political contradictions regarding the implementation of Iran’s nuclear strategy and observes the position of the Russian print media as a source of information. Despite the active development of online news in Russia, print media continue serving as a popular information source in the country. This holds especially true for local officials, who are responsible for making government decisions, thus determining our increased interest in these forms of media. The Russian press, when covering the ‘Iranian nuclear issue,’ do not serve as unbiased sources of information, but suggest propaganda influence, albeit flavored with thorough knowledge of the political situation.

ABSTRACTThe content of mass information in any society is closely linked to the patterns of its political development. A typical example of this concerns the modern Russian media, which have been influenced particularly by their embeddedness with the authorities. Indeed, the Russian media have served as the mouthpiece of the country’s political leaders, and this fact has left a significant imprint on media coverage. To understand the symbiotic relationship between Russian political leaders and media, this article focuses on the Syrian Civil War, which is currently one of the most important issues on the international political agenda. The Russian government’s role in the conflict over the last several years has affected the Russian media’s tremendous interest in this topic. Nonetheless, Moscow’s participation in the war was determined uniquely by how the communication sphere related the conflict to its audience so that its involvement in the Syrian imbroglio was not an objective reflection of reality. Guided by the political interests of the authorities, the Russian media created an emotionally oriented story, which intended to advance an extremely positive interpretation of Russia’s role in this conflict in the minds of the audience. Therefore, in terms of propaganda, these media acted not as “pure” promoters of the state’s will, but rather as its “interpreters.” This study highlights how leading Russian publications approach this agenda and the consequences this fact has for the Kremlin’s political priorities. The authors come to a definite conclusion regarding Russian media’s unconditional dependence on the political priorities of modern Russian society. It was crucial for the Kremlin that the media present a positive view of Moscow’s involvement in the conflict given that Russia’s military presence in Syria caused a very controversial reaction throughout the world and led to increased tensions and contentious disputation between Russia and many Western countries. Therefore, the Kremlin needed to justify its policies and did so through manipulating the Russian public by means of a large-scale propaganda campaign conducted through the Russian media. This phenomenon is pivotal to understand not only the case of Russia’s involvement in Syria but also contemporary international media development.

This article analyses support for censorship in Russia as part of the democratization process. Censorship has been an important part of Russian history and it was strengthened during the Soviet era. After the collapse of the Soviet system formal censorship was banned even though the reality has been different. Therefore it is not strange that many Russians would like to limit the freedom of the media and to censor certain topics. The views of Russians on censorship have been studied on the basis of a survey carried out in 2007. According to the results, three different dimensions of censorship were found. These dimensions include moral censorship, political censorship, and censorship of religious materials. Support for these dimensions varies on the basis of socio-demographic characteristics and media use. The article concludes that many Russians reject new phenomena, while support for the censorship of political criticism is not as high, but political censorship seems to enjoy more support among elites than among the common people.