Russia’s image in the Middle East is that of a tough state with a rigid authoritative political rule and an inclination toward hard power in its foreign policy. Indeed, Moscow’s support for some regional hard-liners and opposition to others, as well as its stance as one of the largest arms suppliers to the Middle East, are all grounds for this perception in the region. Although recently Russians have started to pay more attention to its soft power projection in different parts of the world, Moscow has a long way to go to make itself look more attractive on this front. The Middle East is no exception.
Russia’s soft power toolbox can be roughly divided into two compartments: one is state-driven instruments of greater engagement, and the other “grassroots” factors that build Russia’s image in the region.
Whenever one is talking about Russia’s soft power these days the very first thing that pops up is the flagship of Russian international media: RT. Formerly branded as Russia Today, RT boasts its Arabic service — RT Arabic — as one of the three largest TV networks in the region along with Al Arabiya and Al Jazeera. Labeled as “Putin’s propaganda bullhorn” by US Secretary of State John Kerry, RT is nevertheless doing a fairly decent job in disseminating the Russian agenda in the region.
According to Google Analytics, more than 2.5 million users visited the website of RT Arabic (then called Rusiya Al-Yaum) over the first quarter of 2009. The channel has grown 26-fold since attracting an average of 6.3 million users per month. In six Arab countries — Morocco, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Jordan — RT is watched by 6.7 million people, while its overall audience in the Middle East, North Africa and Arab diasporas in Europe, according to its own sources, spans more than 350 million viewers. In May 2012, the number of views of its YouTube channel amounted to 57 million and alongside 228 million total views on the channel as of April 2015. Census shows this popularity became possible for two prime reasons: RT “represented alternative perspective on the world events” (37%) and “has [attractive] information content” (21%). Besides, RT Arabic was found to be more popular than Arabic-broadcasting Deutsche Welle, France 24 and Chinese “CCTV Arabic” together.
AL-MONITOR All-Access gives you unlimited access to all our journalism, the full Daily Briefing, exclusive interviews, premium newsletters, and live events — for less than $2/week.
