8:20 p.m. ET, April 17, 2022
How Estonia wants to steer clear of Russian propaganda
From CNN's Ramishah Maruf
It's hard to find out what's going on inside Russia as its attack on Ukraine rages.
So those looking for news of what's going there are looking to neighboring Estonia, according to CNN International Correspondent Scott McLean, reporting from its capital Tallinn.
Estonia, a country of 1.3 million people, has taken in 30,000 Ukrainian refugees since the war began.
Like Ukraine, it too was a former Soviet state, and still has a large Russian-speaking population, and a well-founded fear of Russian aggression. The majority of its population is ethnically Russian, especially in the towns just across the Narva river, which separates the country from Russia. Many of Narva's older residents don't speak Estonian well, if at all.
"In the absence of a whole lot of Russian language media in Estonia," Mclean said. "Russian state media has been left to fill the void, giving people a steady dose of Kremlin propaganda."
But now even that source has been cut off since the invasion. When Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, Estonia blocked many Russian news outlets and TV channels.
"Many people here [are] buying some systems to pick up Russian channels," said Vladimir Zavoronkov, a city council chairman in Narva, Estonia's third-largest city, which is located on its border with Russia.
Many are buying antennas in electronic stores to pick up Russian channels and the more technologically-advanced are setting up their own VPNs, he added.
Read the full story: