U.S. streaming giant Netflix is facing the prospect of being forced to broadcast Kremlin propaganda from as early as next week as part of new obligations in Russia.
The move comes as fears increase in the West over how Moscow is leveraging media to sow confusion amid its ongoing war on Ukraine.
On March 1, Netflix will fall under a series of new obligations in Russia after it was added to a register of “audiovisual services” overseen by the country’s communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, last year.
The register applies to streaming services available to the Russian market with at least 100,000 daily users and comes with requirements to broadcast streams of 20 Russian federal television stations. This includes the likes of Channel One, NTV and a channel run by the Russian Orthodox Church, Spa, according to the Moscow Times.
Russia’s Channel One in particular is closely linked to the Kremlin, with a miscellany of some of Putin’s most intimate political allies on the board of the station set to be broadcast across Netflix screens.
This includes the likes of Putin’s top spy Chief Sergey Naryshkin and Alexey Gromov, Putin’s first deputy chief of staff. Gromov’s responsibilities include overseeing the production of state propaganda and Moscow’s broad program of censorship. He had previously served as Putin’s press secretary.
The new broadcast requirements are applicable only to Netflix’s services in Russia, where it has an estimated subscriber base of close to 1 million, based on figures from the firm that manages Netflix’s affairs in Russia.
When pressed as to whether they would comply with the new rules, Netflix did not respond to POLITICO’s request for comment. However, experts say that the U.S streaming giant is unlikely to withdraw from the Russian market, owing to commercial interests.