Describing the mood and the spirit of the Indian press as having always been very warm and friendly towards Russia, its envoy to India, Alexander M. Kadakin, said every effort was being made by his country to increase the presence of Russian media in India.
Participating in an interaction between Indian and Russian journalists at an event here on Friday night, Ambassador Kadakin said, "We have been doing our best to increase the presence of Russian press in India. I do hope that as time goes by, and as our relations develop in a most favourable direction, the number of our correspondents, the number of our press people will no doubt increase."
"On the whole, we like the mood and the spirit of the Indian press, because it has always been very warm and friendly for my country. But a Russian proverb says-there is a cripple in every family; of course our people, and we don't like when some of your press either copy what was written in the West or invent certain things which are not there at all," he added.
Ambassador Kadakin further stated, "I can give many examples (of negative reporting), but I would not like to stop on them, because on the whole we feel there is a vibrating feeling of friendship towards my country, and we could see by the very favourable coverage of the recent events in the Crimea or in Ukraine. We do understand that India maybe could not openly support Russia as we did support her during the (India-Pakistan) war of 1971, using (our) veto power four times."
"The times have changed, we understand, but India's understanding of the situation, it is very touching to us, and we value the announcement and statements by your people in power."
Speaking at the same event, Mr. Anand Sahay, president of the Press Club of India, said there was a time when Russian journalists had a significant presence in India, and their interaction with their Indian counterparts was very healthy and positive, and of great benefit to both countries.
He said it was a matter of concern, that despite the almost decade-and-a-half strategic partnership in very significant sectors between India and Russia, the interaction between the medias' of the two nations has been abysmally low for years, and needed a major turnaround and boost.
Welcoming power point presentations by a couple of Russian journalists during Friday's hour-long interaction, Mr. Sahay said these presentations were indicative of the reach of Russia in the global media space, and Indian media would do well to access and take advantage of another source of knowledge, and play the all important role of further cementing bilateral ties in not one, but many spheres of mutual interest.
He said he would be the happiest to see a much improved interaction between India and Russian journalists.
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