Russia Pumps Tens of Millions Into Burnishing Image Abroad

"That's just bad, bad PR, and I'd add bad politics . . . for which no Ketchum contract, television network or foundation money can compensate," McFaul said.

Russia Today, a news channel set up in April 2005, is broadcasting in English and Arabic and planning to expand into Spanish. At first glance it looks a lot like CNN, but it can be a breathless cheerleader for the Kremlin.

Nikonov, of the new grant-making group, called the channel "too amateurish" and spoke dismissively of many of the other efforts: "Sometimes people spend a lot of money on nonsense."

The editor in chief of Russia Today would not agree to an interview without the right to approve all of her quotes, the channel's press office said. The Washington Post declined to accept those terms.

But other programs are gaining in nuance and sophistication. The official government newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta is using its healthy profits to fund monthly supplements in newspapers in India, Britain, Bulgaria and the United States. "Russia: Beyond the Headlines," as the publication is called, is a paid advertising supplement in The Post.

The publication covers many "soft" subjects, such as Christmas in Russia and Russian tennis stars. Eugene Abov, who oversees the project, said it might be expanded to Asia and other countries of Western Europe, including France and Germany.

Reviewing the first Rossiyskaya Gazeta supplement in The Post last August, Jack Shafer, the media critic for Slate, which is owned by The Post, wrote that "beneath the shattered syntax of these laughable pieces beats the bloody red heart of the tone-deaf Soviet propagandist."

But Sarah Mendelson, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said she actually found herself reading an article in the latest edition. She calls the overall push "remarkable," aimed at general audiences as well as elites.

Many of the Russian ventures aimed at foreigners showcase a diversity of voices often denied to Russia's own residents, notably by state television.

Russiaprofile.org, a news and analysis site funded by RIA Novosti, has been singled out by a number of Western commentators as a smart, engaging operation featuring a range of opinions, including some quite hostile to the Kremlin.

"I think you can learn a lot reading that," said Stephen Sestanovich, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and co-chair of an advisory group on Europe and Asia for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.). "It is by far the best."

Andrei Zolotov, Russia Profile's editor in chief, said: "I think we are in a very lucky position. We are small, we are in English, so we are probably below the radar screen of some particularly zealous people" who might try to shut it down.