Russian media reticent on ex-spy

By Kyrill Dissanayake
BBC Monitoring

Traces of radioactive material were found in Mr Litvinenko's body

Russian broadcasters have been offering their audiences limited coverage of the death of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko in a London hospital.

Most have continued to attach less significance to the story than their Western counterparts, with very few outlets bucking this trend.

Low priority

As news of Mr Litvinenko's death broke overnight, coverage on Russia's two main state-run television channels, Channel One and Rossiya, was low-key and brief.

The story figured low down the running orders of morning and lunchtime bulletins, as both channels focused on reports from the EU-Russia summit in Helsinki and the passage of the Russian budget through parliament.

Over pictures of the former spy before and after his hospitalisation, newsreaders quoted official statements from British police and medical staff about the circumstances of his death.

The two channels also reminded viewers that, two years after Mr Litvinenko had left Russia 2000, a Russian court had convicted him in absentia of abuse of office.

'Human tragedy'

Russia's other main national TV network, NTV, which is owned by the state-controlled energy giant Gazprom, gave the story more prominence.

All of the channel's overnight bulletins led with news of Mr Litvinenko's death, and gradually expanded their coverage to include reaction from the Russian government.

One unnamed Russian source at the EU-Russia summit was quoted as describing the death as a "human tragedy", while remarking that accusations of Russian government involvement were "too stupid to merit comment".

Other channels with less reach in Russia, such as Ren TV and Centre TV, have also interspersed quotes from official statements with brief recaps of Mr Litvinenko's life.

Death-bed statement

The only high-profile outlet to lead consistently with Mr Litvinenko's death has been the independent radio station Ekho Moskvy, the first major Russian broadcaster to report the story on 11 November.

The station devoted the first 10 minutes of its early afternoon news roundup to the story, and has continued to air reaction from friends of Mr Litvinenko.

So far it is also the only Russian broadcaster to report Mr Litvinenko's accusation that President Vladimir Putin was involved in his death, made in a statement two days before he died.

The Kremlin has repeatedly denied such allegations.

Meanwhile, on the state-run Mayak national network, news of Mr Litvinenko's death went largely unreported.

BBC Monitoring selects and translates news from radio, television, press, news agencies and the internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages. It is based in Caversham, UK, and has several bureaux abroad.