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Since Thursday, Russian state broadcaster RT has been broadcasting a linear program in German - citing a license recently issued by Serbia's REM. Serbia thus entered into a tug of war between the great powers, the tension between which these days can be cut with a knife. At stake are the price of gas, sanctions, political murders, but also Moscow's many years of attempts to market its state media on the German market.
Two weeks ago, people at the Regulatory Body for Electronic Media (REM) had an urgent job. On that Friday (December 3), it was necessary to quickly prepare an unusual broadcasting license - for the Russian state media RT, namely their channel in the German language.
According to "Vremena" sources, the order came directly from the first woman of REM, Olivera Zekić. With breakneck speed and without a lot of paperwork, the matter was prepared. Television formerly known as Russia Today she received the permission at the meeting of the REM Council already next Monday (December 6), although in the published report from the meeting that agenda item does not exist.
A small mystery was solved by REM Council member Judita Popović. She told the portal "Cenzolovka" that the item was subsequently included in the agenda, and that she was against the granting of the license, but eight other colleagues were in favor.
According to her, the documentation shows that it is a Russian media based in Russia, so Judita Popović considers the issuance of the license to be a violation of the law.
The Law on Electronic Media, admittedly, offers numerous options for a certain media to be considered the "jurisdiction of the Republic of Serbia", but until the conclusion of this text it has not been clarified on what basis the channel RT DE (in German) can be a matter of Serbia at all.
In the meantime, REM's website provides information on the license issued to TV Novosti, which belongs to RT, the Russian state service with headquarters at Borovaya 3 in Moscow. The license for the RT channel in German was issued for a period of eight years, until December 6, 2029.
And that's where things get spicy. Because Serbia has entered into a tug of war between the great powers of Germany and Russia, the tension between which these days can be cut with a knife. At stake are gas prices, sanctions, political murders, but also Moscow's many years of attempts to market its state media on the German market.
The speed with which REM's decision was made corresponds to RT DE's announcement that it will finally go live with linear television - ie 24-hour non-stop programming - from Thursday (December 16). In the end, it was so, although the live channel can only be watched on the RT DE portal and via satellite.
RT DE refers to the license from Serbia and the European Convention on Transboundary Televisions. According to her, a Serbian license for a television program should also be valid in other European countries, just as a license issued in Germany should be valid in Serbia. However, Russia has not ratified that convention.
"Serbia has positioned itself as a convenient partner for circumventing German regulations," writes Cenzolovka.
RT DE, which has had a portal in German since 2014, did not even ask the German regulators for permission because, as it is estimated, it would not get it. This summer, they tried through Luxembourg, but they were told to try in Germany, when they already have their headquarters and editorial office in Berlin.
The Media Institute Berlin-Brandenburg, which as a regulator should be in charge, announced that, according to a preliminary assessment, the Serbian broadcasting license referred to by RT DE "does not constitute a sufficient basis for broadcasting programs in Germany". As explained, RT DE is based in Berlin, so the decision on the license should be made there.
The leading German tabloid "Bild" reports that the authorities could seek a court ban on the broadcasting of RT DE. "Bild" estimates that the channel started broadcasting the "expected propaganda" on Thursday.
The YouTube platform, which belongs to the American concern Google, deleted the YouTube channel of the new Russian television just a few hours after the live broadcast started there.
As explained by the YouTube spokesperson, RT in German has been banned from managing channels on the world's most popular video platform since September. Then one of RT DE's channels was temporarily blocked for "policy violations", that is, "spreading lies about the pandemic". When RT DE continued to upload content to another channel, they were permanently removed from the platform.
The spokeswoman for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova, wrote that she was giving an interview to RT DE when, due to the blockade, the broadcast on YouTube was interrupted. "But we didn't expect anything else," she added.
The editor-in-chief of RT, Margarita Simonyan, stated that nowhere in the world has RT experienced so much "resistance and hostility" as in Germany. "At the same time, the German public has shown itself to be very open," she said.
On the other hand, the representative of the German Liberals, Thomas Hacker - whose party is part of the new ruling coalition - reacted harshly: "With the right, the Media Institute and YouTube immediately closed the shutters on this pirated channel of the enemy of democracy."
In recent days, Germany has expelled two Russian diplomats after a court in Berlin sentenced a Russian to life imprisonment for the murder of a Chechen with Georgian citizenship. The crime took place two years ago in the German capital, in Tiergarten Park. The court judged that the murder was an act of the Russian state, revenge against that Chechen who was in the paramilitary formations that fought against the Russian army at the beginning of the century.
Russia announced its response to the expulsion of diplomats, but also announced that the matter should not jeopardize relations with the new government of Social Democratic Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
In that government, the head of diplomacy is Analena Berbock from the Green Party, who previously advocated tougher sanctions against Russia due to the events in Ukraine. Berbock last weekend reiterated her opposition to the commissioning of the Russian-German Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.
The statement came at a sensitive time, while gas prices are reaching dizzying heights, and Germans are seeing their heating bills increase by a quarter. The markets reacted to Analene Burbok's words with new price increases.
Many energy experts believe that Russia artificially contributed to the rise in prices in Europe, trying to apply pressure to finally start the new pipeline.
And that's when Serbia comes back into the game. Namely, recently President Aleksandar Vučić from Sochi brought a favorable gas price of $270 per thousand cubic meters, at least for the next six months. According to "Vremena" sources familiar with the events in REM, Vučić also brought Vladimir Putin's "request" for RT DE to get a license in Serbia.
This could draw Serbia deeper into the battle of the elephants, in which the small players who fumble around their legs usually suffer the most.
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