Estonia launches ‘Russian channel’

TALLINN: Estonia’s ERR public broadcaster on Monday launched its first Russian-language channel aimed at the Baltic EU state’s large Russian minority, which until now primarily relied on programming beamed in from Moscow.
”The main goal of the new channel is to create more cohesion in society and to give Russian speakers in Estonia the feeling that they matter,” Darja Saar, head of the new ETV+ channel, told AFP.
The move comes as tensions between the tiny Nato member and neighbouring Russia have surged since Moscow’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine last year and the ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine between pro-Russia rebels and the government. Ethnic Russians account for one quarter of Estonia’s 1.3 million people.
Many of them rely exclusively on Russian media for information on controversial events like the Ukraine crisis and know more about current affairs in Russia than in Estonia itself.