On Vladimir Putin's Visit to Omsk, Russian State Media Uses Footage of Moscow to Blur the Siberian City's 'Depressed' Tag

Moscow, Sept 3: Omsk, the "underdeveloped" city located in south-western Siberia, has been accorded the "depressed" tag since 2015. An attempt, however, was made to rectify its image by the Russian state media, which used footage of Moscow to describe the city during President Vladimir Putin's visit on August 28.

Vesti, the prime-time show of top Russian news channel Rossiya-1 -- which is watched by 99 per cent of the country's television audience -- used footage from Mitino district in Moscow to bluff the viewers on the present condition of Omsk, reported Polygraph.

Mitino district, which was beautified by the Moscow administration in 2016 at a cost of 702 million rubles or nearly USD 12 million, was used to describe the incumbent condition of Omsk in the Rossiya-1 report.

Here are the glimpses of Mitano, which were passed off as Omsk:

The transcript of the Rossiya-1 report on Putin's visit to Omsk read as follows: "The city has changed dramatically in recent years; bicycle paths have appeared, the historical center has been restored. Now there's greenery everywhere. Omsk is becoming an eco-friendly, modern city."

The factual inaccuracy was first pointed out by an anonymous local, who took to the internet forum - Meduza.io - to mark his angst. On the Russian forum, he said that Omsk is the same "ugly grey-panel sprawl" which it has been since the past two decades.

Here is the actual condition of Omsk:

Omsk was the fourth most depressed city in the list of 10 prepared by Russia's Financial University in 2015. The worst ranked city was Volgograd, followed by Kurgan and Ulyanovsk. Other cities which featured the list include Astrakhan, Togliatti, Saratov, Novokuznetsk, Kostroma and Lipetsk.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 03, 2018 03:34 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).