TURKMENISTAN: LOCAL MEDIA REACTION TO PRESIDENT OBAMA'S

UNCLAS ASHGABAT 000867 SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR SCA/CEN, SCA/PPD, IIP, ECA E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL PGOV SCUL KPAO TX SUBJECT: TURKMENISTAN: LOCAL MEDIA REACTION TO PRESIDENT OBAMA'S SPEECH IN MOSCOW ¶1. (U) Sensitive but unclassified. Not for public Internet. ¶2. (U) U.S. President Barak H. Obama delivered a speech at a graduation ceremony of New Economic School in Moscow on July 7. While there was no reaction by local Turkmen media or coverage of the event, people with access to Internet as well as Russian or international media may have been aware of the speech. LOCAL AUDIENCE EXPOSURE TO POTUS SPEECH ¶3. (SBU) President Obama's visit to Russia was widely highlighted on Russian TV channels, available to Turkmen viewers via satellite. Post highlighted the transcript of Obama's speech on the home page of Post's website in English and Russian. The website enjoys an average weekly viewership of 700 people (English) and 159 (Russian). Post also distributed the text of Obama's remarks though Washington File to its subscribers. About 40 individuals, government institutions, and state media outlets receive these daily newsbriefs. ¶4. (SBU) COMMENT: Turkmenistan has no resources to calculate viewership statistics. It can be estimated that about 52 percent of Turkmenistan's population watch news stories on Russian TV channels as an alternative source to state media reporting. Based on rough calculations, it is possible that about 30 percent of the population was aware of the event and only 7 percent had access to the full text of Obama's remarks through English language television news channels and Internet resources. END COMMENT. MILES