Obama’s speech to students at Moscow’s New Economic School given limited television coverage

Obama’s speech not widely seen on TV in Russia

MOSCOW — President Barack Obama’s speech to a graduating class of Moscow college students Tuesday was not widely available for the Russian people to see on television.

Obama’s speech at the New Economic School was being televised live on 24-hour news channel Vesti, but not on any of the main, more widely watched Russian TV channels like First Channel, Rossiya, or NTV.

A day earlier, the rebroadcast of a June 13 Russian league soccer match on the main state-run sports channel seemed to overtake coverage of Obama’s conference with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

It was not immediately clear whether Russia was trying to quash viewership of the news conference, where Obama and Medvedev announced preliminary agreement to reduce their massive stockpiles of nuclear weapons. Russia owns or strongly influences the country’s main nationwide TV channels.