March 11, Pozirk. Moscow has earmarked one billion Russian rubles (more than $11 million) for the launch of the Union State’s media holding company, Izvestia reported, citing the Union State Secretary Dmitry Mezentsev.
The company will run the newspapers Soyuznoe Veche and Soyuz. Belarus-Rossiya, the journal Soyuznoye Gosudarstvo as well as a TV and radio broadcaster, presumably BelRos.
The Union State will fund the company from its budget, the official said, noting that Russia will contribute almost $5 million for the TV company, $5.2 million for both newspapers and $0.7 million for the journal.
In early 2024, Soyuznoye Veche and Soyuz. Belarus – Rossiya had a print run of about 320,000 copies, distributed in Belarus as supplements to Narodnaya Gazeta and SB. Belarus Segodnya, respectively. The Soyuznoye Gosudarstvo monthly has a print run of 15,000 copies.
Alaksandar Łukašenka came up with the idea of the Union State’s media holding company in November 2021, describing it as a “solid, powerful and definitely modern” tool to be used in the “ideological confrontation” with the West “even after the guns stop talking.”
In late January, Alaksandar Špakoŭski, a Belarusian propaganda worker turned diplomat, announced that the company would be fully operational by early 2025.
