From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 11/28/2006 6:06 PM
In Russia, media mystery thickens
Journalist says political debate is still alive despite Putin’s efforts
November 28, 2006
By Allison Dedrick

In the wake of the deaths of a fellow reporter and a spy who spoke out against the current government, Russian journalist Evgeny Kiseliev argued last night that despite President Vladimir Putin’s tightening control, political debate is still alive.
EnlargeEnlarge
Russian journalist Evgeny Kiseliev speaks at Cubberley Auditorium last night. Kiseliev said that despite tightening controls by Russian President Vladimir Putin, political debate and power sharing continue there.
Alvin Chow

Russian journalist Evgeny Kiseliev speaks at Cubberley Auditorium last night. Kiseliev said that despite tightening controls by Russian President Vladimir Putin, political debate and power sharing continue there.

“There is the perception that political life has gone away in Russia, that everything is decided by the president and the small circle that surrounds him,” said Kiseliev, the former general director of what used to be one of the few remaining independent television networks in Russia. “But I think political struggle goes on even in a dictatorship.”

Kiseliev said he doesn’t consider Russia a totalitarian state and sees people struggling for power despite Putin’s authoritarian methods of ruling.

“Now the struggle just takes place behind the Kremlin walls,” he said.

With Putin’s second term due to end in May 2008, Kiseliev compared the current Russian political situation to real estate, with the discussion revolving not around location, but “succession, succession, succession.”

The Russian constitution prohibits a leader from being president for more than two consecutive terms. Putin has repeatedly said he will honor the constitution, but speculation runs rampant that he will run for a third term or otherwise attempt to remain in power.

Kiseliev discussed several ways the president could retain his power, though said he thinks Putin might step down for good, because doing otherwise would ruin his legitimacy in the eyes of both Russians and foreigners.

One theory is that Putin will allow another president to step in for a period of several months, at which point the president would resign, allowing him to run for another term that would no longer be consecutive to his previous terms. He could also try to hold another position of power, such as the Chairman of the Constitutional Court, or could rely on his popular support and not hold an official position, though Kiseliev dismissed this option as too risky for Putin to ever attempt.

Kiseliev predicted that Putin will announce current First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev as his choice for his successor, with the announcement likely coming in the spring.
type=text/javascript></SCRIPT> src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js" type=text/javascript> </SCRIPT>

“The next six months will be a bitter political struggle,” Kiseliev said, explaining that many other Russian politicians harbor their own presidential ambitions and that the Russian elite has traditionally looked for a weak candidate “who would be manageable and easily manipulated.”

The media plays an especially important role in this struggle for political power, as the majority of the television stations and newspapers are controlled by the ruling party or businesses that have close ties to the government.

“Not a single TV station or newspaper, with a few exceptions, dares to speak about what really goes on in the Kremlin,” said Kiseliev, who had a news show comparable to “60 Minutes” that was cancelled when the television network changed management a few years ago. He has since been attempting various incarnates of the show, and appears to have struck pay dirt with “Glossed Power,” a new show that will begin airing next month.

At least two newspapers have remained independent and outspoken, including the Novaya Gazeta, which publishes twice a week, but the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya demonstrates the danger of speaking out against the government. Politkovskaya wrote for the Novaya Gazeta and was known for her courageous reporting about the war in Chechnya. She accused the Russian intelligence services of committing crimes such as torture and abduction in Chechnya and attempted to reveal human rights violations that occurred. Politkovskaya was shot to death in October, and her death is still under investigation.

Aleksander Litvinenko, a former member of the Russian Federal Security Service who also spoke out against Putin’s government, died Thursday in an apparent radioactive poisoning. Litvinenko had fled Russia for Britain six years ago and accused Putin of causing his death in a statement issued by the hospital.

Kiseliev said he did not know who had killed either Politkovskaya or Litvinenko, but stressed that the situations were different. He mentioned that Litvinenko was no doubt murdered, but that the murder might be a ploy to frame Putin.

Kiseliev said he thinks the most important development in the current Russian media is the increasing importance of online media. The Internet, he said, is growing as a forum for Russian intellectuals to air their discontent.

“Even if the political mood changes in Russia, the conventional media will not regain its former influence,” said Kiseliev.

Kiseliev foreshadowed a period of political struggle for power and highlighted the need for the media to try to remain independent, especially since Russian officials rarely admit their involvement in scandals.

“I tell my Western friends not to take the words of Russian politicians for granted,” Kiseliev said. “Russians are true masters of their words: they give them and they take them.”
http://daily.stanford.edu/article/2006/11/28/inRussiaMediaMysteryThickens