Russian media backs Trump

Russian state-owned media does little to hide its preferences in the US presidential election.

News reports about the race for the White House on Russian television devote most of their time to elaborating on Donald Trump's allegations that Hillary Clinton is corrupt and the election is rigged.

"Clinton has a choice. Either she gets the presidency or she goes behind bars," pro-Kremlin journalist Dmitry Kiselyov said during his flagship Sunday program on the state-controlled Vesti channel. Unlike the anti-establishment Trump, he told viewers, Clinton has the full backing of the US security services, "oligarchic" corporations and the media.

Other reports on the Kremlin-controlled TV channels that are the primary source of news for most Russians have highlighted concerns about Clinton's health, linked her to sex scandals and suggested the Democratic Party is "panicking" over recent polls.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly rejected claims that the Kremlin would like to see Trump win the White House. Experts, however, point to strong similarities between their positions on major foreign policy issues, including Syria and Ukraine.

The US presidential battle has been widely covered, though it usually appears in news bulletins after domestic news and stories about Russia's military action in Syria.

Much of the focus has been on Clinton, who is portrayed as a Russophobe, a warmonger and responsible for bloodshed in the Middle East.

Vladimir Solovyov, a prominent presenter on NTV, said it's not that Russian media backs Trump, but rather that they dislike Clinton.

In contrast, negative stories about Trump often get lighthearted coverage.  In recent weeks, Russian media attention has concentrated on apparent flaws in the US election process, echoing Trump's claims that the election is rigged against him.

In his Sunday program, Kiselyov highlighted what he said were problems with the electoral system, which he described as "an inter-tribal mess" that had not changed since the 18th century. Some US states still used voting machines from the 1980s, he said, which he compared to soda vending machines in the Soviet Union.

Also repeated frequently are claims by Trump that the US has 1.8 million dead people registered to vote. They're called "dead souls," a reference to a famous 19th century Russian novel by Nikolai Gogol.