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A clip floating on various subreddits purports to show that:

Russian State TV now shows advertising for Russian Women to marry Chinese Men. Promising them a better life...

The clip seems to show a dating or marriage-arrangement app with Asian-looking men and Caucasian-looking women and has some Russian words on the screen but otherwise the background is just music.

So was this clip shown as an advert on Rossiya 24? Is the message of the clip as claimed on Reddit?

Oddthinking
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Fizz
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  • Nothing stops anyone from putting a bunch of stock footage together, slapping the channel logo on it and feeding it into these pumped up bubble subreddits. Unless there is proof of this being posted on the official ВГТРК outlets, for all we know this is one of many fakes. – WhatHiFi Apr 21 '23 at 08:31

1 Answers1

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(partial answer based on findings by this moment)

Misleading

So was this clip shown as an advert on Rossiya 24?

The only truth seems to be that this clip was, indeed, produced for a Russian propaganda channel. The rest seems inaccurate, including that there is no confirmation if it was rolled on a propaganda TV at all.

Here's how the Russian "Lenta.ru" propaganda channel puts it:

It says that a Russian journalist Alisa Romanova worked on her 30-minute program "Bridal Diplomacy" (ru: "свадебная дипломатия") (YouTube video) for "Rossiya Live" propaganda channel back in June 2018. The topic was about telling stories of Russian women who married Chinese men.

"Lenta.ru" then confirms that the video in question was used by Romanova as a promo to the main work and it does not deny that the promo could have been shown on TV — probably, on the same "Rossiya Live" (not "Rossiya 24").

My personal opinion is that this seems plausible: a catchy, hype 20-second promo could attract the interest to the main work. Also, in 2018 the casualties among Russian men were not that significant, so the entire topic of women marrying Chinese men was not that sensitive to the populace as it is now.

Additionally, the video does not seem produced by Romanova herself. At least some of the "happy brides" in this promo video is produced by a Ukrainian (!) videographer Mykhailo Shestov.
For example, a fragment at 00:07-00:10 in the video showing a young lady wearing a checkered plaid blanket and chatting on a laptop is available for purchase here on ShutterStock.

and has some Russian words on the screen

It says Russian-Chinese relationship / a good choice / turns into a marriage (ru: российско-китайские отношения / удачный выбор / превращается в брак).

Be Brave Be Like Ukraine
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    Mkay, so in summary, it seems it was an ad for their own show, which itself is more like an investigative journalism piece, on a social theme ("special report from 2018 "Wedding Diplomacy""). – Fizz Apr 19 '23 at 19:30
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    Interestingly absent from the 30-mins TV show are any mentions of on-line dating or on-line bridal arrangements etc. Which is a little strange given the focus of the ad. But the show does start with some kind of teleconferencing via a laptop (although it might be just a pre-recorded clip). – Fizz Apr 19 '23 at 19:37
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    Re: *it was an ad for their own show* — yes it seems plausible. Note that the 20s video apparently lacks the actual ending (link to an app/site or so). Imagine a next scene saying "Wanna know what happened next? Join us on Sunday 7pm" – Be Brave Be Like Ukraine Apr 19 '23 at 20:11