The impact of war in Ukraine and the ensuing ban of pro-Kremlin news providers on media use and trust among Baltic Russian-speakers

• In Event: The Baltic Russophone Identity in Flux: Political Behavior, Boundary Making, and Media Practices

Abstract

Drawing on survey data collected before and after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia in 2022, the paper explores the impact the war in Ukraine and the ensuing ban of Kremlin-aligned news sources, long being central to the news media diets of Baltic Russian-speakers, have left on their interest in political information, use of, and trust in various news providers.

The 2023 survey data shows that use of and trust in Russian news sources among Russian-speakers in Latvia and Estonia have continued to fall, as has already been evidenced in earlier research. Yet, the use of local and Western news sources has not grown, and trust has decreased not only in Russian, but also in local and Western news providers. Furthermore, Russian-speakers more than audiences of the ethnolinguistic majority tend to avoid political information and discussions on sensitive, controversial political issues. They also rely more on instant messaging platforms – along social media and interpersonal communication, they play a highly important role in the ways Russian-speakers learn the news, with conventional news providers being less prominent. The only exception is local Russian-language news sites, which are central to the media repertoires of Baltic Russian-speakers.

These observations demonstrate popular feelings of news avoidance and media scepticism and cynicism among Baltic Russian-speakers. Although these sentiments are not new, the paper argues that Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has further fuelled them.

Author

• Jānis Juzefovičs, Riga Stradiņš University