By Juan Camilo Escorcia | 2023-10-20

CARACAS -- "Propaganda dissemination" between Russia and Venezuela took a significant step forward as the Russian news agency Sputnik and the Venezuelan News Agency (AVN) signed an agreement Monday (October 16) to swap Spanish-language content.

During a ceremony held in Moscow, the deputy editor-in-chief of Sputnik, Sergei Kochetkov, and Venezuelan Deputy Minister of Popular Power for Communication and Information Mardy Nilse Medina Galavis formally signed this collaborative agreement, as reported by the Russian state news agency.

During the event, Medina emphasized the significance of "sustaining a dialogue between our agencies across various domains, including content exchange covering Russia and Venezuela, radio collaboration, and partnerships with universities. We hope that this marks the initial step towards fostering discussions between Sputnik and AVN, paving the way for numerous opportunities."

'Dissemination of propaganda'

In a report published in October 2022, the NGO Transparencia Venezuela highlighted the emergence of a new facet in Venezuelan-Russian integration: the "dissemination of propaganda" as a means of cooperation.

After the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, it appears that Venezuelan state media received explicit directives, believed to originate from the Ministry of Communication and Information, instructing them to manage information related to the conflict and counteract what were termed "anti-Russian narratives."

Similarly, these directives emphasize that "Venezuela does not maintain a neutral stance" in the conflict and underscore the importance of closely monitoring "official announcements from the Russian Ministry of Defense and President [Vladimir] Putin."

The directives emphasized framing the Russian incursion into Ukrainian territory not as an invasion but as a "special operation" aimed at safeguarding the population from what they referred to as the "genocide perpetrated by the Ukrainian government, described as neo-Nazi."

Transparencia Venezuela noted the significant emphasis placed on using the term "neo-Nazi" when referring to the administration of Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The NGO emphasized that the content guidelines were distributed again more than a year later, on March 2, through the WhatsApp messaging platform to members of the newsrooms and journalistic teams within Venezuela's public media outlets.

A confidential source within AVN provided the message to Transparencia Venezuela.

As part of its strategy to counter the repercussions of the sanctions imposed on Russia by Europe and the United States, Sputnik has chosen to engage in content exchange with the official media outlets of Latin American regimes like Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba.

Direct effects

Facing financial difficulties, the Russian propaganda apparatus shuttered its Rio de Janeiro office back in March, which has had repercussions on its ability to remunerate its employees across Latin America.

Sputnik, the Russian news agency, closed its Rio de Janeiro office from the impact of the 10th package of sanctions against Russia, approved by the European Union (EU) on February 24.

The 10th package was imposed one year after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"Today I signed the termination of my contract with Sputnik Brazil due to the 10th package of sanctions from the European Union, which this time included the agency and led the Río branch to close its doors," journalist and ex-Sputnik employee Marina Lang revealed on Twitter (@marinalang) on March 13.

According to Lang, "Twenty people from this office have been fired" following the sanctions, but she noted "the agency still exists, as it has branches in other regions of the world. Sputnik will continue to produce content in Brazilian Portuguese despite the office closure."

In March 2022, as part of the first package of sanctions stemming from the February 2022 invasion, the EU prohibited broadcasts by the news outlets Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik News in the EU. It imposed the ban because of systematic disinformation about the war, which both Russian state media outlets insist on calling a "special military operation."

Despite that ban on RT and Sputnik in the EU, their operations in Latin America remained relatively unaffected at the time.

Latin America has an estimated 30 million followers of such Russian sites.

Sputnik News has had its Latin American editorial office in Montevideo, Uruguay, since mid-2015. The office coordinates radio broadcasts, manages the Sputnik Mundo website and produces news for local media and affiliates throughout the region.

According to correspondents and former workers of Sputnik in Latin America, who prefer to stay anonymous, the Russian news agency employs one to two freelance journalists per country for its news agency.

These journalists are paid $1,500-$2,500 per month through outsourcing contracts governed by Russian regulations.

"That's how Sputnik works in various countries in Latin America. It has no registered offices or legal status, thus avoiding having to pay local taxes. Plus, it prefers to hire local journalists as freelancers instead of employing them as staff, saving a lot of money in terms of medical and other benefits," an ex-Sputnik journalist said earlier this year.

He added, "Thus, in the eyes of local banks and authorities, these freelancers' monthly pay looks more like an international remittance than a salary."

Late payments

Other sources earlier this year said that correspondents for Sputnik in Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Brazil have resigned from the agency because of payment delays, among other reasons. Freelancers working for Sputnik have reportedly experienced payment issues for some time, which have worsened since the invasion of Ukraine.

"A late payment is something that used to happen sometimes, once or twice a year, but since the packages of sanctions were imposed, it has happened repeatedly. Payments now take two to three months to arrive," stated a journalist who is still affiliated with the media agency.

Sputnik, which is owned by the Russian state media group Rossiya Segodnya (also owner of RT), uses Sberbank to send money from Moscow every month to pay its Latin American correspondents. Sberbank, Russia's oldest and largest bank, is mainly (60.25%) owned by the Russian Central Bank.

However, EU restrictions on transactions with Sberbank since 2014, along with some of its board members being designated by the US Treasury Department Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for money laundering, may have caused payment delays for Sputnik freelancers in Latin America even before Putin's full-fledged war on Ukraine.

The EU imposed those long-ago restrictions after Putin's first military attacks on eastern Ukraine. Putin sent troops there and illegally annexed Crimea in 2014.

But a US ban on American banks acting as correspondent banks for Sberbank since February 2022, when Putin launched his full-scale invasion of his neighbor, seems to be the main reason for the several delays of payment to Sputnik freelancers in Latin America. That ban happened around when eight other members of Sberbank's Board of Directors were designated by the OFAC, leading to further complications in payment processes.

"We know that the payments are sent directly from Moscow through Sberbank to the regional Sputnik office in Montevideo, and from there, the money is transferred to the bank accounts of the region's freelancers, and we receive them as international transfers," said another local reporter linked to Sputnik.

Sputnik executives did not "give much information or clarity to Latin American journalists" about payment delays or fund movements even prior to the sanctions, he said. Despite these issues, some correspondents continue working with the agency because of limited job opportunities in this region, even if doing so requires writing articles defensive of Putin's war.

"I resigned from Sputnik because I don't share the position of the editors in Moscow and Montevideo on calling the invasion of Ukraine a 'special military operation' and because they use the agency as a propaganda machine. However, not everyone has the luxury of being able to resign these days, so some correspondents still work there, despite not sharing the agency’s party line or ideology," an ex-Sputnik correspondent told Entorno, also speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Entorno learned that Sputnik journalists and ex-freelancers in Latin America are prohibited from disclosing the company's internal affairs to other media companies for up to three years after the end of their contract, per number 9 (Confidentiality), paragraphs 9.7 and 9.9. Thus, some dare to speak only under the condition of secrecy.