Russian Media and the EU Referendum 2016

The Russian media’s attitude towards the outcome of the 2016 EU referendum can be summed up in the headline which the Latvia-based online Russian-language outlet Meduza ran on 25 June 2016c: ‘United Kingdom leaves EU. Why should we care?’ Inward-looking and defensive, the ‘official’ government-controlled Russian media have traditionally showed relatively little interest in foreign news unless it directly concerns Russian interests or politics. Russian-speaking media can be roughly divided into two groups: the official pro-Government outlets and the smaller group of websites (such as Meduza), radio stations (Dozhd) and social-media pages keen to reveal the truth about the Russian political realities. Yet, regardless of the emotional colouring and ideological content of Russian media’s reporting of the referendum, they are united when it comes to the subject of international sanctions against Russia. Russia cares more about referendum results when they mean progress in terms of its relations with the West.