The New Yorker's Ryan Lizza interviewed Dimitri Skorobutov, "a former editor at Russia’s largest state media company," who revealed the Kremlin had very clear instructions on how Russian journalists should cover the 2016 U.S. presidential election:
“Me and my colleagues, we were given a clear instruction: to show Donald Trump in a positive way, and his opponent, Hillary Clinton, in a negative way,” he said in [a journalism conference] speech [in the Netherlands]. In a later interview, he explained to me how the instructions were relayed. “Sometimes it was a phone call. Sometimes it was a conversation,” he told me. “If Donald Trump has a successful press conference, we broadcast it for sure. And if something goes wrong with Clinton, we underline it.”
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“There was even a slogan among Russian political élite,” he said. “ ‘Trump is our president.’ And, when he won the elections, on 9th November, 2016, Russian Parliament or State Duma even applauded him and arranged a champagne party celebrating the victory of Donald Trump.” That night, Skorobutov and his colleagues played clips of the party on the news.
More: A Russian Journalist Explains How the Kremlin Instructed Him to Cover the 2016 Election (New Yorker)