The Russian government has instructed state media outlets to cut back on favorable coverage of U.S. President Donald Trump, according to Bloomberg.
Citing three unnamed people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reported Thursday that the Kremlin had justified the instruction to cut back on coverage by saying that Russian viewers weren’t interested in the details of Trump’s nascent presidency.
The decision, Bloomberg noted, came on the heels of the ouster of Trump’s national security adviser, retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, who sat with Putin at a media event in Moscow in 2015 and is widely reported in Russia to be a sympathetic voice in Washington.
It also came after a tweet from Trump Wednesday, in which he said the nation had “TAKEN” Crimea:
Crimea was TAKEN by Russia during the Obama Administration. Was Obama too soft on Russia?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 15, 2017
Bloomberg’s story also noted that, according to Interfax data, Trump surpassed Putin in media mentions in January, the first time Putin played second fiddle in the nation’s presses since he returned to presidency in 2012.
Russian journalist Alexey Kovalev seemed to note the change on his Twitter account Thursday:
Russian TV today: complete Trump blackout (as opposed to 18-month-long orgy of praise)
— Alexey Kovalev (@Alexey__Kovalev) February 16, 2017
This post has been updated.
When you’ve lost the Russians…
Lucky Russians.
There’s nothing better than a free press, eh Vlad?
Does that include Breitbart and Hannity?
“TAKEN,” eh?
Well, what Trump doesn’t have are a very particular set of skills. It’s a lack of skills he has acquired over a very long career. That lack of skills makes him a nightmare for people like us. If you let his daughter’s clothing line go, you’ll never hear the end of it.