In the 1970s the cream of Radio Moscow’s commentator teams united in a radio journal, called  “News and Views”. Taking part in the ambitious project were Viktor Glazunov, Leonid Rassadin, Yuri Shalygin, Alexander Kushnir, Yuri Solton and Vladislav Chernukha. Over the years the journal grew into a major information and analytical program of the Radio Moscow foreign service. 

International observers followed closely the developments in hot spots across the globe. In the early 1980s the Arabic Service sponsored an important action, and that was in the heat of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in summer 1982, when Israeli troops entered Beirut. Letters from Palestinian listeners had practically stopped coming. Igor Rostovtsev, a former employee of the Arabic Service and now a journalist specializing in the Middle East, remembers one letter. 

“The letter came unexpectedly, from Lebanon, in autumn,” Igor Rostovtsev says. “The address on the letter was the Palestinian Club of friends of Radio Moscow, the Ansar concentration camp. The sender was a young Palestinian, Makhmud Abu-Shababa, who was in the camp with his comrades. I wrote back asking him to tell more of what was going on there and letters from him became regular. The Arabic Service of Radio Moscow mounted a campaign in support of the camp’s prisoners. In addition to programs on the Radio Moscow Club, there came interviews with Soviet top military men and scientists. A year after the camp was shut down and its prisoners were set free.”
 
In summer 1999 the main issue on NEWS AND VIEWS became the crisis in Kosovo. Russia was quick to condemn the policy of force used by the North Atlantic alliance. In the heat of the crisis in Kosovo the Voice of Russia was functioning as a speaking platform for Russian diplomats, political analysts, military, scientists and cultural figures. The developments in Kosovo received extensive coverage, both on the air and on the Voice of Russia’s Website. Anton Kalinin is the Director of the special program service. 

“The Voice of Russia’s Website reacted immediately after the war in Kosovo broke out,” Anton Kalinin says. “On the same day it opened a service that dealt with all incoming information and published commentaries by the observers. We told of Kosovo culture, which was now under threat. Our proposal to speak up received wide support from the audiences, which are always active, particularly when something important is on and there’s a lot of information coming in. On such days the news line alone is visited by more than 10 thousand people daily.” 

For many listeners abroad the Voice of Russia became an alternative source of information. 

In 1999, on the peak of Kosovo crisis, the Voice of Russia correspondent Georgy Yeretnov was reporting from the troubled province. In the subsequent years his trips to Kosovo became regular. He now has plenty of experiences to talk about. 

“I remember meeting with Serbs, Albanians and representatives of other ethnic minorities living in the region,” Georgy Yeretnov says. “In autumn last year, when Russian peacekeepers working within the UN international force in Kosovo returned home, I went to the province on request from the Voice of Russia leadership and found myself in a small town with a historical past, Kosovo Pole. In 1999 a hospital for Russian peacekeepers opened there and you could hear Russian all around you and Russian songs on the radio. The hospital was the only medical institution providing medical assistance for both soldiers and officers from Russia and anyone who needed qualified medical help. In the years since then 40 thousand people went to the Russian doctors for assistance and more than two thousand operations were performed by the Russian surgeons. Workers in the hospital helped anyone regardless of nationality – Albanians, Serbs, Gypsies, and to servicemen from the UN contingent too. Side by side with the Russian doctors worked their Serbian and Albanian colleagues. When I was leaving Kosovo Pole, someone was playing a tune the Serbian doctors had come to adore so much. And instead of Kosovo Pole I heard the words “Russian Pole” (or Russian field) – the lyrics of a popular Russian song.