Phobic Russian TV Descend into Racism

Dissident radio network for Eastern Europe, Radio Free Europe has reported how state run and owned media in Russia has hit a new low with a major television programme depicting former US President Barack Obama as a female rapper in slave era costume. The demented sketch was condemned by opposition leaders, who have published several studies on the way in which the Russian state owns and controls most output on television and radio via various proxies and front companies. As with the hated Soviet era, which has been rehabilitated under the authoritarian rule of Vladimir Putin, the Russian public has to turn to radio and TV broadcasts from overseas to counter the propaganda of their own government.