Looks like a liberal, talks like a liberal

At least one myth about Dmitry Medvedev can be put to rest.

 

At a speech in Germany in June Medvedev slipped and with a newbie fervor delivered an enigmatic proclamation, quite open to interpretation. “Freedoms of the mass media require protection from the influence of the administrative apparatus at different levels,” he said in Berlin on June 5. Was this a pledge to put an end to the orchestrated call-in sessions with President Putin, where all impromptu calls were carefully written and rehearsed for hours in advance of “live” phone calls with the nations?

 

Even in an environment where Putin maintained high popularity ratings, nothing was left to chance. An elderly woman called in to Putin to swoon, “Is this really you? And before was it also you? Oh, thank you so much!” This was scripted as well.

 

Two months later, there is no end in sight or any radical difference from the pervasive “hidden censorship” on three main television channels that characterized the Putin regime.

 

Russian Newsweek today reports how the same Kremlin operators, including Vladislav Surkov and Aleksei Gromov, continue scrupulous monitoring of most of television broadcasts.

 

The content and even format of the newscast are subject to comments and edits from the Kremlin throughout the day. In addition to ideological guidelines, the top television producers receive unsigned faxes and phone calls with specific edits.

 

Today government officials, cultural and intellectual elite united with human rights activists in applauding Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, a “nation’s conscience”, who has spent his life fighting against political repression and censorship. 

 

The reign of political repressions as national politics may in fact be history, but the age of censorship is far from over.