From Russia with a Message When Russia Today TV first appeared in world broadcast in December 2005 its mission seemed quite clear, even obvious. Moscow was obsessed with the idea to change drastically the stereotypical and often rather negative visualization of Russia produced by Western media and to provide it with a new positive image of a civilized and adequate country living in the 21 century. Russia has been consistently dissatisfied with what Western TV and newspapers say about Russia and how they explain events taking place in Russia and “near abroad”. The point is thus to show people all over the world what is in fact happening in the country and to provide Russian point of view on the actuality. It’s not a new trick, it’s been widely used by numerous similar TV-channels from other countries such as Al Jazeera English, German DW World or Euronews.