HT Report 2019/2020

Module: RUU22032
Word count:

Student Name Student Surname Student ID

Tinatin Murzakhmetova 18328402

Mark Selway 18301153

Working Title
General Suleiman’s Death - is Russia’s low profile / lack of response to this event an official
media policy or a dead donkey - news wise.

Executive Summary
The aim of this report is to investigate and analyse the US missile attack on a senior Iranian minister.
Iran is a key Middle Eastern ally of Russia, especially since the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of
Action agreement between Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security
Council. However, Russia has barely mentioned, yet alone criticised the attack. Instead it has stepped
up overtures to Israel. Traditionally, unprovoked aggression by western agencies against a Russian
ally provokes a strong critical media and political reaction. However in the wake of the assassination
of Iran’s Republican Guard commander, there has been little official or unofficial coverage in the
Russian media. Apart from some individual ministerial commentary reported in Russian media,
Western news agencies have been more critical of this attack, possibly reflecting an anti Trump
agenda. Analysis of the situation and the clearest explanation for Russia’s silence on the issue stems
from Middle Eastern commentary that places the event in the context of Israel and Iran. As Russia’s
two main partners in the Middle East, Russia is keen not to pick sides. This suggests that the
opportunity to criticise traditional opponents for the attack is outweighed by the imperative not to
antagonise either party. Therefore it seems that pro government Russian media has refrained from an
official position or commenting on the events. To examine this lack of reaction from Russia we will
be using a variety of sources from Russian media to Western, from Iranian to Chinese.

Introduction
Qasem Soleimani was an Iranian major general of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)
and a commander of its Quds Force, a division primarily responsible for extraterritorial
military and clandestine operations. On 3rd January 2020 he was killed near the Baghdad
International Airport in Iraq by the U.S. drone strike. The airport strike also killed Abu Mahdi al-
Muhandis, deputy commander of Iran-backed militias in Iraq known as the Popular Mobilization
Forces, and five others, including the PMF’s airport protocol officer, Mohammed Reda.

Key Questions
In order to write this report several questions were discussed:
 1. What are the general theories put forward for the motivation for the attack? This will reflect
the disparity in international consensus and condemnation.
2. Does Russian independent and state press contrast / conflict / differ or align with international
lines of inquiry? This will help to identify any level of bias and explain the lack of news.
3. Where is the most plausible reporting emerging from? This will help to highlight any form of
bias that was shown in other medias. Some would expect Russian state media to be very vocal
on this issue, but this is not the case. Is this suppression, of little interest, or an active policy
of the Russian state and therefore a new tactic? This question will attempt to assess what
Russian authority is really thinking and which media are best placed to assess this.

Findings 
1.
2. Russian independent press does not contrast or show any signs bias compared to state press.
In most cases independent state is simply trying to paraphrase and state the facts of the events
that happened during this period in a chronological order. It is evident that most of the articles
in Raintv were referenced from western media such as Reuters, Associated Press, Bloomberg
and translated into Russian. It showcases both perspectives from Iran and USA. Although,
many independent media do not oppose to the state press they do acknowledge the potential
threat of this situation to Russia as they call this a serious issue to be a possible reason for
third world war. Meduza press seems more opinionated than other as it looks deeper into the
issue by trying to interpret the situation through the use of western and Iranian press, as well
as getting opinions of the citizens of Iran.
3. Meduza explained that Iran has informed Iraq about the upcoming “revenge” attacks which in
turn has informed US allowing them to move Americans out of the targeted area. Americans
are suspicious of Iran missing the target on purpose, as no one was killed. but Iranian inside
press has published that 80 people were killed in the attack. Iranian Secretary of State for
foreign affairs stated that they have carried out their lawfully legal “revenge” and no longer
want to proceed with the conflict.

Conclusion