On September 15 during his official visit to Armenia RF President Vladimir Putin speaking at the RA National Assembly, touched upon the problem of broadcasting of Russian ORT and RTR channels in Armenia, among other aspects of the cooperation between the two countries. “We are attentive in following the developments in the issue of full-scaled broadcasting of ORT and RTR in Armenia”, Putin said in particular. “It is associated mostly with economic problems, which we will try to solve on our behalf – the fault of the Russian party is greater here.” As it has already been reported, in early 2001 the issue of further re-broadcasting of these channels was the subject for interstate negotiations as well as intensive discussion in the Armenian media. The Russian TV companies refused to sign agreements to rebroadcast their programs in 2001, allegedly, because of the lack of funds, and insisted that the Armenia party cover all the expenses, an offer which was objected to by the latter one. As a result, RTR went on broadcasting its programs on VHF, while the broadcasting of ORT was transferred to UHF and was available only for the viewers of Yerevan and the neighboring regions of Ararat Valley (see details in YPC Weekly Newsletter, January 13-19 and January 27 – February 2, 2001).
The situation around the presence of the Russian TV channels on the Armenian screens was also discussed during the meeting of Presidents of the two countries, Robert Kocharian and Vladimir Putin. As it became known, on his arrival to Moscow the RF President gave instructions to appropriate bodies to solve the issue as soon as possible.
