Summer of Russian discontent
By Global Journalist Staff Posted Oct 1 2004
Amidst the recent wave of violent journalistic deaths in Russia such as the gang-style shooting of Forbes editor Paul Klebnikov and the fatal stabbing of the editor in chief of Armenian Lane magazine Payl Peloyan, subtler forms of pressure on the media sneak under the radar and go unpunished.
For years, media in Russia and other countries from the former Soviet bloc have been suffering an ominously covert form of political blackmail. Case in point, the ransacking and subsequent takeover of the offices of the Russian New Times (Novoye Vremye), the monthly digest of the weekly Novoe Vremye, regarded by many as one of a handful of independent voices in the post-Soviet press.
It has been almost a year since the Sept.17, 2003, takeover of the magazine’s offices in beautiful, historic Pushkin Square in Moscow by phantom new owners. The building, which the magazine has called home for more than 40 years, was initially stormed by men wearing camouflage uniforms, and later seized by a firm claiming to be its new rightful owner. After a short-lived bout of blaring media coverage following the ransacking of the magazine’s offices, things wound down.
But exactly three weeks before the presidential elections in Russia, on Feb. 19, 2004, the aggressors took over the premises, preventing staff from entering, destroying files, computers, furniture and archives.
Following the immediate aftermath of the takeover, the Russian and international press, as well as dozens of intellectuals, bombarded authorities with complaints. But Russian President Vladimir Putin, Attorney General Vladimir Ustinov and Minister of the Interior Boris Gryzlov have thus far shrugged off the incident with an “Oh, what can you do?” attitude.
Media watchdogs have lamented the New Times case as a poorly veiled attempted to muzzle free speech, saying economic pressure on the media is a growing trend. President Putin and his circle have dragged their feet in remedying the situation, says Seda Pumpyanskaya, daughter of the New Times editor in chief Alexander Pumpiansky. And why shouldn’t they, if the Kremlin benefits from the muting of a critical voice, she says.
What makes such real-estate maneuvering possible are loopholes in the Russian business code. And while it might be easy to acquire a property illegally, it doesn’t come cheap. Pumpianskya estimates it would take about $1-$2 million to unlawfully take over and retain the former offices of New Times in Pushkin Square. This money goes to pay bribes to city officials and judges and to obtain pseudo-legal registration of the property rights. Later the building can be sold for as high as $15 million, at a net profit of 700 percent.
According to the Vienna-based International Press Institute, which put Russia on its watch list in 2000, the administration’s inaction in matters such as the New Times fiasco reinforces Russia’s image as a country ruled by the crudest laws of “bandit capitalism.”
– Katerina Pesheva
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New Times Background
With Mikhail Gorbachev’s Glasnost, New Times became an independent publication, fighting for a democratic Russia and its integration with the West. In 1990 the ownership of the weekly passed to the journalists themselves.
At the time of the attacks, the magazine was being published in English and Russian, with subscribers all around the world.
New Times, one of the best magazines in Russia, is an independent weekly devoted to analyzing a wide range of general topics. It traditionally takes a critical line based on honest and professional journalism. It is no secret that it is the last publication having no ties to the government nor to Russia’s rising economic tycoons, which also means that it struggles with limited financial means.
The New Times editor in chief since 1990 has been Alexander Pumpiansky. Born in 1940, he is a journalist with 40 years of experience. In 1976 he was prohibited from practicing his profession by the Soviet regime, which accused him of “bourgeois-like objectivism” in reporting on the United States from New York. This ban was lifted only when Glasnost came in.
In 1987 Pumpiansky received the Vorovsky award for the best publication on international affairs; in 1989 he was recognized as Journalist of the Year in the Interpress Agency, an award granted by the United Nations “for personal courage in the struggle for freedom of speech”; and in 1997, he received a SAIS-Novartis diploma from Johns Hopkins University for excellence in international journalism.
The first deputy editor in chief of the New Times was Kronid Lyubarsky, a famous Russian dissident exiled to Germany for many years and one of the world’s 50 journalists in the IPI list (the Vienna-based International Press Institute).
New Times ceased publication for more than three months following the incident. In June, the magazine’s staff somehow managed to restart the publication, but the prognosis of its survival remains grim.