Freedom House through Russian television stations. On a daily basis, Liberty from reaching the Russian people, it expects they are exposed to propagandistic programs in which its own broadcasts to remain unhindered in neighbor- the EU is demonized, NATO is treated as an aggressor, ing democracies, which are committed to freedom of the democracies on Russia's borders are presented as expression. Thus when Latvian authorities imposed a enemies, and the annexation of Crimea is hailed as a six-month ban on the Russian television channel Rossi- milestone in the rebuilding of a great Russian state.® ya RTR for inciting ethnic hatred in April 2016, Russian officials called on international watchdog bodies to in- By exploiting the tensions that already exist between vestigate the incident as a violation of media freedom.” Estonia's ethnic communities, the Kremlin has sought to turn a complex problem into something combus- Something similar is at work in the nongovernmental tible. The tendency of Russian speakers and ethnic organization (NGO) sector. Moscow has established or Estonians to live in parallel universes is exacerbated supported a series of charities, think tanks, and asso- by Russian propaganda, which depicts the Estonian ciations that promote Russian interests, claim to rep- political leadership as hostile to Russians and as resent Russian minorities, and in some cases advance members of a cosmopolitan European elite that secessionist causes in the near abroad.'! The Russian promotes sexual degeneracy and cultural radicalism. government presumes that these organizations will be Moscow also tries to create distrust of the Baltic allowed to operate without restriction in democracies. states among their NATO allies by depicting them as Meanwhile, it compelled the U.S. Agency for Interna- overly emotional, irresponsible, and intent on dragging tional Development (USAID) to close down its Russia other countries into a conflict with Russia. operations in 2012, and has