Rather than reporting the facts of an event, they tend to give their views of the event. Most are in fact commentary pieces, or attempts at analysis in a style more common in some western European countries than in Britain or the United States.
Articles are often light on facts, but filled with colourful writing.
In fact journalists in the CIS often view themselves as following a literary tradition as much as a news agenda. This tendency towards viewing the profession as a literary one, has created journalists across the region who fill articles with fluff, react badly to editing, have inflated egos, and tend to be out of touch with readers. The Soviet Union was a land of the expert, and journalists and editors consider themselves such professionals in the media that the suggestion that they ask their readers for advice often takes them by surprise. Perhaps this disdain for consumers' desires and needs is one of the reasons they so often produce dull, low circulation newspapers which are patently out of touch with the bulk of the population in their communities.