[avmich]

You don't get a more impressive list because these are the only remaining sources. The rest are suppressed - by various means. Echo of Moscow could be the last - and might be closed not because it's oppositional but just because it's more balanced than government-influenced media.

[democracy]

It's not balanced, it is more anti-Putin than any of the "western" sources. CNN looks like a puppet comparing to Echo of Moscow hate.

[avmich]

I usually point to Yakunin's articles; Matvienko, Peskov are not unusual guests in Echo of Moscow. On the other hand, it's pretty rare to hear opinion of Kasparov, Navalny or Kasyanov on primary TV channels.

I've tried to compare Echo of Moscow to RT, for example. Echo had much more details - when RT said "policemen stopped the people who blocked the way", Echo actually provided photos and videos, together with short interviews with both policemen and people those policemen detained.

There are many people in Russia who don't like Echo. But if you try to find out why, you'll find it's because Echo is simply different - not the majority, as should be expected, frankly, if you'd consider the possibility of the media being filtered by some means. You should go for facts - which is often hard - and Echo is probably most professional in giving you facts, from all sides and opinions.

[sologoub]

What about western media? They could block those China-style...

[xentronium]

Language barrier. Nobody would even bother.

[sologoub]

You'd be surprised how many Russians speak another language... Plus google translate works pretty well.

[avmich]

I'd guess, much smaller percentage than in Europe, where many neighboring countries speak different languages. Why Russians should study foreign language if they are not going to use that - and that's the case for large percentage of population? It's similar to US in that regard - almost all know English, that's enough at home, and usually enough in neighboring Canada, and the primary foreign language is Spanish, probably because another major neighbour, Mexico, speaks Spanish.

Google Translate is pretty good :) but distinctively worse still than the native tongue.

[sologoub]

Russia is very different from US in that it's internal market is not really enough. Many US companies don't bother trading outside the boarders because the cost/benefit is not there.

This is definitely not true in Russia, especially in anything related to software and such (the better paid industries), even Oil requires speaking another language.

It is true that poorer portion of the population don't usually invest much time in other languages, but middle and upper income brackets do.