"Deep into his 14th year in power, the president appears to have given up on improving Russia."

http://www.newstatesman.com/world-affairs/europe/2013/05/anti-fox-news

Inside Russia Today: counterweight to the mainstream media, or Putin's mouthpiece?

Up to 2.5m Britons watch the Kremlin-funded TV channel, which is so strongly critical of Western governments it's known as the "anti Fox News". But does it have a blind spot when it comes to Russia's own failings?

BY OLIVER BULLOUGH PUBLISHED 10 MAY 2013

"As to what exactly it is for, there can be no doubt that Putin believes that controlling a medium gives power over content. At a press conference just before Christmas, he was slightly thrown when a question from a Los Angeles Timesreporter concerning the ban on US adoptions was greeted by applause from the assembled journalists.

“I understand that you work for the Los Angeles Times, and not for Pravda or Izvestia, and that you have to take a certain position,” Putin said, revealing himself – at least when it comes to propaganda – to be the unreconstructed KGB agent that his enemies always say he is. That is where to look for an expla - nation of RT. Deep into his 14th year in power, the president appears to have given up on improving Russia. Instead, he funds RT to persuade everyone else that their own countries are no better."