January 23, 2026
‘They won’t shut up about Greenland’: Meduza obtains the Kremlin’s instructions for state media covering Trump’s standoff with Denmark
Donald Trump’s push for U.S. control of Greenland has triggered a fresh round of instructions from the Kremlin on how Russian state media should frame current events. According to media guidelines obtained by Meduza, state-run and pro-government outlets were told to present the standoff as evidence of a weakening West, a fractured NATO, and an American president borrowing from Vladimir Putin’s playbook. And despite Putin’s public insistence that the Greenland dispute doesn’t concern Russia, the guidelines call for wall-to-wall coverage of the issue. Meduza’s Andrey Pertsev explains how the Kremlin is turning Trump’s Greenland gambit into a propaganda opportunity.
TL;DR
- Kremlin has issued guidelines to state-run and pro-government media on how to cover Donald Trump's pursuit of Greenland.
- The guidelines instruct outlets to frame the situation as proof of a weakening West and a fractured NATO.
- Russian media are told to present Trump as acting similarly to Vladimir Putin in expanding territory and to emphasize Western leaders' inability to act independently.
- The coverage aims to legitimize Russia's own territorial actions, such as the annexation of Crimea, by suggesting powerful states act this way.
- Russian officials, including Sergey Lavrov and Dmitry Medvedev, have made public statements critical of the U.S. interest in Greenland.
- Despite Putin's public stance that the issue doesn't concern Russia, internal directives mandate sustained coverage.
- Journalists are complaining about the extensive coverage required, feeling it overshadows the 'special military operation'.