The positivity rate in English-language Arctic coverage by Russian press agencies jumped from March to April with Russian leaders making a concerted effort to decouple the Arctic from the invasion of Ukraine, say Canadian researchers who’ve been studying Russian coverage of the North since January 2020. “We noticed an upswing of articles pushing the narrative that the Arctic region should be depoliticized and that a return to normal was desirable,” said researchers from the Observatoire de la politique et la securite de l’Arctique (OPSA) at the École nationale d’administration publique (ENAP) in Montreal, in their most recent report. The research project was started in May 2021, with analysis going back to January 2020 and was developed with the Observatoire des administrations publiques autochtones (OAPA). “We wanted to have a more systematic description of the how the Arctic region is presented to the public through Russian press agencies,” Landriault said. “I understand the reason why and I understand companies are maybe wary about being singled out, but for researchers, these are precious resources to study,” Landriault said.

Source: CBC News May 30, 2022 20:13 UTC