America’s answer to Russian propaganda TV

IGOR TIHONENKO, green-eyed, with sandy blond hair and a trim beard, looks into the camera and intones, “I took his words as a direction.” He is paraphrasing the explosive testimony of the former FBI director, James Comey, about President Donald Trump. Mr Tihonenko, a native of Belarus, is broadcasting live in Russian on the day of the Comey hearing to an audience in Russia and the states on its periphery. Shortly afterwards his Russian colleague, Roman Mamonov, checks in with a correspondent at one of the Washington bars that opened early to allow political junkies to drink along with the testimony. The hearing was broadcast in its entirety on the network (and on Facebook) in simultaneous Russian translation.

This is American state television, beamed from a studio beside Capitol Hill. Mr Tihonenko and Mr Mamonov are two of the youthful faces of Current Time, America’s answer to Russia Today (RT), the Kremlin’s propaganda network. The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which oversees Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, has started a 24-hour Russian-language TV channel to counter the rise of RT and Sputnik, another pervasive Russian broadcaster. Viewers of Current Time in Russia proper cannot be many—it started quietly in October, and is available there only online or by satellite. No cable providers will carry it.