How Russia’s ‘shock jocks’ covered the Queen’s funeral

Modern Russia is a propaganda state, but not in the same way as the Soviet Union. The Kremlin has squeezed out any independent media, but all the same, the coverage of the Queen's funeral demonstrated how this is a post-modern propaganda state, in which competing 'narrative entrepreneurs' try to make their mark and please the boss.

As I have written before, the official line on the Queen's death was strikingly respectful, taking its lead from Vladimir Putin's own message of condolences. There were some spiteful and critical comments, primarily on social media, but even these were then shouted down in what seems to have been a genuine public outcry.

Although Putin claimed that he would have been too busy to attend anyway, that he was one of the few heads of state – along with Belarus's Alexander Lukashenko and Myanmar's Lt General Myint Swe – not invited either to attend or send a representative did hit a nerve. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mariya Zakharova, who has made a career out of embittered vitriol, described it as a ‘profoundly immoral’ act, ‘blasphemous to the memory of Elizabeth II.’

Nonetheless, it is clear that the Kremlin, which can impose an official line when it chooses through a secret memoranda called tyomniki circulated to media outlets, decided not to do so over the funeral. As a result, the media was free – free to try and guess what would please its audience the most. And, of course, that is essentially an audience of one man: the president himself.

The majority of the coverage was restrained, factual and even positive. Newspaper Izvestia, which has been brutal towards Liz Truss, treated its readers to a detailed account that recognised the meticulous planning behind the event and noted that it passed off without a hitch.

Tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda ran a largely neutral article, albeit under an over-egged headline – hardly unknown in the West given how reporters and columnists rarely get to choose their titles – ‘The Funeral of Elizabeth II: a racist scandal, Prince Andrew's tears and a corgi's farewell to its mistress.’ Even so, the 'racist scandal' proved to be a rather contrived comparison to the way African heads of state were forced to travel by bus, while a ‘white gentleman’, Joe Biden, could take his own car.

Indeed, what criticisms the newspapers aired were generally aimed either at the British government, for ‘playing politics’ (as if any state funeral is not an impromptu summit) or clumsily handling the Saudi and Chinese delegations or the Americans. That the infamous 'Beast,' Biden's eight ton armoured presidential limousine, got stuck in traffic was gloatingly treated as poetic justice.

Indeed, government newspaper Rossiskaya Gazetarather improbably stood up for the poor, neglected heads of state, complaining that the decision ‘to force world leaders to go to the funeral not in their motorcades but on special buses’ was a ‘gross violation of diplomatic protocol.’ Presumably it had in mind those Russian officials whose cars blithely skip past Moscow's notorious traffic jams, escorted by police cars with blaring sirens and strobing lights, using their own special designated lanes, who could feel these leaders' pain.

Even the regular television news was matter of fact, and showing footage of the mass of respectful mourners, the choreographed pageantry, the human moments of sorrow.

Yet the evening TV political talk shows, whose hosts seem to compete to be more strident and xenophobic than the next, took a very different tack. Consider, for example, what Olga Skabeyeva, one of the most energetically toxic, said on the government's Rossiya-1 channel. One of her guests was former general and parliamentarian Andrei Gurulyov, a man who previously advocated missile strikes on the UK, who this time called Britain ‘the seat of all evil.’ Skabeyeva replied saying that a nuclear strike should have been launched on Monday because so many VIPs were present for the funeral.

Was she really advocating a nuclear first strike? Of course not. However, this demonstrates how Russia's media environment works.

Most of the newspapers and the TV news programmes treated the funeral as a straight news story. Some tried to turn it against the British or US governments. As for 'shock jocks' like Skabeyeva, their role is to bring the combative energy of Jerry Springer to George Orwell's ‘Two Minutes Hate.’

When there is no clear steer from the Kremlin, different media outlets do still present different perspectives, but they are all operating in an increasingly dangerous environment, one in which outlets can be closed, editors sacked and journalists imprisoned or even killed if they step out of line. So instead they are trying to guess where the line is, or even move it a little. The Skabeyevas thrive in an atmosphere of conspiracy and xenophobia. Many journalists are trying to cling to the remnants of their professional standards. Seeing which camp ultimately triumphs will tell us much about how far Putin really is planning to drag Russia into outright totalitarianism.