What Did Russia’s Leading News Agency Tweet During the Final U.S. Presidential Debate? · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

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Hours ago, the third and final U.S. presidential debate ended, capping off a heated exchange between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump that again mentioned Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, many times. RuNet Echo recaps the debate-night tweets by one of Russia's biggest national news agencies to get an idea of what resonated in Moscow.
With nearly 3 million followers on Twitter, RIA Novosti was Russia's most active major news organization that offered live blogging during the third debate. The following tweets appeared in chronological order.
The first tweet appeared about 30 minutes in, when Hillary Clinton first mentioned the U.S. government's spying allegations against the Russian state:
Клинтон заявила что Россия “шпионит” за американцамиhttps://t.co/ufZJlThpAX pic.twitter.com/pb8DVOu0tg
— РИА Новости (@rianru) October 20, 2016
Clinton declares that Russia “spies” on Americans.
RIA's wording was likely meant to amuse Russian readers, whom the Kremlin has repeatedly reminded are at risk of being spied upon by the U.S. government, in keeping with revelations made by Edward Snowden and others.
Трамп рассказал, почему Клинтон “не любит Путина” https://t.co/5gpzxwDTlZ pic.twitter.com/F8sug6wlNt
— РИА Новости (@rianru) October 20, 2016
Trump says why Clinton “doesn't like Putin.”
Путин хочет использовать Трампа как марионетку на посту президента США, считает Клинтон: https://t.co/HcgjfJfjql pic.twitter.com/eD4ppRGdiA
— РИА Новости (@rianru) October 20, 2016
Putin wants to use Trump like a puppet in the U.S. presidency, Clinton believes.
Трамп заявил, что благотворительный фонд семьи Клинтон является “преступной организацией” https://t.co/NURKLw6GwI pic.twitter.com/552cE6tJFa
— РИА Новости (@rianru) October 20, 2016
Trump declares that the Clinton Foundation charity is a “criminal enterprise.”
Трамп заявил, что Асад намного умнее Клинтон и Обамы https://t.co/kzuBsKGIuo pic.twitter.com/74isHq8CAF
— РИА Новости (@rianru) October 20, 2016
Trump declares that Assad is much smarter than Clinton and Obama.
Трамп пообещал отменить реформу здравоохранения Обамы https://t.co/bflsAw5ctl pic.twitter.com/4ZY5FFoDRU
— РИА Новости (@rianru) October 20, 2016
Trump promises to cancel Obama's healthcare reforms.
Overall, RIA chose to focus on Donald Trump's comments, whose alarmist tone is likely better for generating traffic on social media. Naturally, the news agency also focused on moments when Russia came up in the debate, though nothing was tweeted regarding the extended conversation about the Russian-Syrian bombing of the Syrian city of Aleppo, which U.S. State Department officials have said should be investigated for war crimes.
In terms of retweets and “likes,” the most popular of the tweets above was the one recalling Trump's declaration that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is “just much tougher and much smarter than [Clinton] and Obama.”