Russian media freedom?

On Friday 18th of April the Russian newspaper Moskovsky Korrespondent had to close down.

Perhaps not a great loss to the world, but the circumstances surrounding the decision were most curious.

The announcement was made shortly after the paper had run a story that Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin was set to divorce his wife Ljudmila and marry the 24-year old former Olympic gymnast Alina Kabaeva, who is currently an MP for Putin’s party, United Russia. Putin eventually denied the story with a derisive “”I have always had a negative opinion of those who, with their snotty noses and their erotic fantasies, meddle in other people’s lives.”

Putin was in Europe when the story ran, and as a consequence the rumor grew, as the Kremlin declined to comment.

The story ran on the 11th of April, and the announcement to shut down Moskovskij Korrespondent was made on the 18th. Immediately suspicions arose that the Kremlin had asserted undue political pressure, a claim that was denied by Artyom Artyomov, the head of National Media Company. NMC owns and publishes the Korrespondent, and is in turn owned by Alexander Evgenievich Lebedev, one of the New Russians and a billionaire many times over.

Lebedev also owns Novaja Gazeta, one of the last critical publications remaining and probably most famous for employing Anna Politkovskaya. Politkovskaya was one of the few journalists who still dared to cover Checnya and criticized Russian authorites for their atrocities in the region. She was shot dead in the elevator of her apartment building on October 7, 2006.

Lebedev gave the editors of Moskovskij Korrespondent two choices: produce evidence for their story or apologize. They opted for the latter, a wise choice given Russia’s political climate.

Personally, I don’t believe the rumors and that the newspaper was in error. Newspapers often are (I’m sorry to admit), and it seems that their sources on this story was far from reliable.

The decision to close the Korrespondent was based purely on economical motives, if we are to believe Artyomov. According to the Times the reasons were “costs” and “conceptual disagreements with the newsroom.”

- We will decide on a new direction for the newspaper and a business plan for its development in the near future, said Artyomov.

Igor Dudinsky, first deputy editor of Moskovsky Korrespondent, is not as optimistic:

- Even a simpleton would understand that it won’t re-open in the next 10 years. I think Putin got very angry.

He still has confidence in his reporters and is glad he published the story.

I have been following the Russian media for a long time, and to me it’s quite clear:

The Kremlin has asserted itself, and made the paper fold.

According to a businessman I interviewed, who has worked in Russia for many years, the Kremlin has dirt on everyone and is not afraid to use it.

I think that’s the case here. Lebedev and his billionaire colleagues did not become that wealthy by punching the clock. A lot of shadowy deals were made, deals that could not only damage the reputations of the people involved but could also lead to criminal charges.

Observe the case of Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky. Here was a man who had started his business venture in 1986, had moved with the times in the 90s when Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin started his market reforms, and was finally arrested in 2003 suspected of fraud. Russia during Yeltsin was infamous for corruption, and this colored the privatization of the Russian economy.

Let’s not forget that Putin was a lieutenant colonel of the KGB, and knows the value of intelligence. Like Stalin, he also knows when to use it.

Oleg Panfilov, Director of the Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations in Moscow, has also stated that the case with Moskovsky Korrespondent was an example of the Kremlin pressuring the media.

“The authorities want to hector the yellow press here into not writing the kind of things the yellow press usually writes about in the rest of the world,” he told the Times.

The National Media Company may claim that this was purely a business decision, but the Russian people know it wasn’t (but evidently they can live with it), and most importantly: Russian media professionals know it wasn’t, and they’re the ones receiving the message:

The Kremlin can and will get to you. They have set up legislative means of doing so, but still prefer to work outside the law, as their actions will be harder to trace.

Sources:
Times: Paper is shut down after report on Vladimir Putin’s love life

Sydney Morning Herald: Better dead than read: Putin affair paper shut

The Age: Putin punishes paper over marriage story

(I would prefer using the Scandinavian transliteration of the Cyrilic alphabet, but as I’m writing in English it makes sense to use the transcription that most English readers are familiar with…)