Europe
Russia
Putin and the Press
The Russian press was tepid on the eve of Bill Clinton’s June visit with the country’s new president, Vladimir V. Putin. Their meeting came at a time when anti-American feelings are on the rise and press freedom, promoted by the U.S. side in the heady Clinton-Yeltsin days, seems to be in danger.
In the opinion of Moscow’s Vremya Novosti (June 5), “Clinton’s visit marks the beginning of a new era, though it may turn out not quite what both sides expect….‘Strategic partnership’ is in its death throes.” The liberal Nezavisimaya Gazeta (June 6) did not fully agree. “The success of the Putin-Clinton meeting proved purely symbolic, as was to be expected. The main sticking point, the problem of the antimissile defense and the ABM treaty, was not settled.” However, it argued, “Both presidents went out of their way to avoid a new round of confrontation.”
Clinton’s visit “lacked novelty,” according to the liberal Izvestia (June 6). “Apparently, the needless element of euphoria and adulation is disappearing or has already gone from U.S.-Russian relations....It seems that Russia and the United States are approaching a new stage in their relationship when delovitost (business-like posture) and pragmatism become the basis for cooperation. Alas, this is happening as the Clinton presidency comes to a close.”
Attempts by the Putin government to muzzle independent media were very much in the limelight before, during, and after the U.S. president’s visit. The latest and most dramatic manifestation of the Kremlin’s newly aggressive approach was the arrest of media magnate Vladimir Gusinsky. Newspapers and television stations belonging to Gusinsky’s Media-Most conglomerate have often criticized Kremlin policies, especially the war in Chechnya.
On May 11 dozens of gun-toting, ski-masked security agents in camouflage stormed Media-Most’s offices in downtown Moscow. Four weeks later, Gusinsky was taken into custody and held for several days in the notorious Butyrka Prison.
The arrest of the owner of the nation’s only independent television network, NTV, unleashed a chorus of indignant voices in the liberal Russian press and the business community. “Unfortunately, we have to conclude that an open season on the independent media has been declared in Russia,” commented the weekly Novaya Gazeta’s Arsen Rstaki (June 8). “Some are asking, anxiously, what signal the Kremlin is sending,” editorialized the English-language Moscow Times (June 15). “But it seems likely we are beyond signals. The Kremlin is removing critics.…Those who argue otherwise...are in denial, or worse.”
In the words of Media-Most’s liberal Sevodnya (June 15), “The impression is that the government is shifting the markers that separate fear from freedom. [It] seems to believe that there is too much freedom and that any doubt about its actions is directed against the state.”
In the wake of Gusinsky’s detention, Russia’s 18 leading businessmen issued an appeal to the procurator general asking for Gusinsky’s release. “Whether the Kremlin intended it or not, the oligarchs interpreted the arrest as a threat to their businesses and, perhaps, their security,” suggested Nezavisimaya Gazeta (June 16). But editor in chief Vitaly Tretyakov gave the government the benefit of the doubt. “I still hold that there is no threat to the independent media in Russia,” he argued (June 15). “However, the government has reached a dangerous divide beyond which the danger is real.”
The liberal weekly Obshchaya Gazeta (June 18) took issue with this view. “Freedom of the press still exists,” said the weekly, “but the assaults on it continue unabated. It is clear that the combatants who joined the battle cannot come to terms since they abide by incompatible principles. It is impossible to reconcile dictatorship and democracy, subservience to the new regime and freedom to criticize. The country is at the crossroads, as is the president, to whom it entrusted its hard-won values.”
In this context Clinton’s visit on June 5 to the studios of Ekho Moskvy, a radio station that also belongs to Gusinsky’s group, was a clear political statement. Ekho Moskvy was the only radio outlet that provided Russians an opportunity for a question-and-answer session with the American president.
One of the questions was: “Would you ask the tax police, for example, to check on the business of CNN?” “I would never do that. It is against the law,” Clinton answered. “Clinton chose to speak at Ekho Moskvy not only to make direct contact with the Russian audiences but also in a broader sense to support freedom of expression in Russia,”Sevodnya (June 5) noted.
