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| Ibid. at 280-81. Takeover Not Celebrated The Moscow Times, Apr. 14, 2011. 123 Zygar, All the Kremlin’s Men, at 29. Joshua Yaffa, ‘‘Putin’s Master of Ceremonies The New Yorker, Feb. 5, 2014. Michael Schwirtz, ‘‘2 Leaders in Russian Media Are Fired After Election Articles The New York Times, Dec. 13, 2011. Daniel Sandford, Russian News Agency RIA Novosti Closed Down BBC News, Dec. 9, 2013; Rossiya Segodnya, which translates to Russia Today is distinct from RT, the international television network supported by the Russian government. Dmitry Kiselev is unrelated to Evgeniy Kiselev, mentioned previously in this section. 127 Benyumov, How Russia’s Independent Media Was Dismantled Piece by Piece The Guard- ian, May 25, 2016. US. Department of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2016: Russia, at 23. 129 Ibid. morning office raid in April 2001, installing anew editorial staff. 121 NTV was subsequently transformed into largely an entertainment channel, focused on pulp crime reporting and lowbrow action series instead of critical political coverage.’’ 122 Meanwhile, the Kremlin reportedly delivered a message to Berezovsky after the Kursk disaster that he would no longer be permitted to control ORT’s editorial policy Berezovsky subsequently sold his stake in ORT to oligarch Roman Abramovich, who asserted years later in UK court proceedings that Putin and his chief of staff had directed him to make the purchase. 123 ORT was subsequently transformed into Perviy Kanal (Channel One, which has become Russia’s largest state-controlled national television network. 124 The Kremlin’s early efforts to neutralize independent or critical national media and consolidate state ownership of media outlets had a chilling effect on the development of independent journalism in the country, and both official and unofficial pressure have continued against TV, print, and online media outlets that challenge the Kremlin line. Since Putin’s return to the presidency in 2012, a spate of firings, resignations, and closures among numerous media outlets suggest that the Kremlin under Putin has no intention of reversing its longstanding trend of controlling the media space. For example, a high-ranking executive and editor of the Kommersant-Vlast news magazine was fired in late 2011 after publishing allegations of fraud in the parliamentary elections that year and a photo of a ballot with an expletive regarding Putin written on it. 125 RIA-Novosti, Russia’s state-run international newsagency, was liquidated in December 2013 on a decree from Putin and refashioned into Russiya Segodnya (Russia Today) under the helm of an unabashedly pro-Kremlin commentator, Dmitry Kiselev. 126 In 2014, opposition channel Dozhd (Rain) was dropped from several cable providers and evicted from its Moscow studio space. 127 The US. State Department has noted that significant government pressure continues on Russian independent media, limiting coverage of Ukraine, Syria, elections, and other sensitive topics and prompting widespread self-censorship. 128 Meanwhile, state-con- trolled media regularly slander opposition views as traitorous or foreign, which has engendered a climate intolerant of dissent in which a spate of violent attacks and criminal prosecutions of journalists have occurred (see Appendix E). 129 Most recently, on November, Putin signed a bill enabling Russian authorities to list and scrutinize media outlets as foreign agents’’and requir- VerDate Mar 15 2010 04:06 Jan 09, 2018 Jkt PO 00000 Frm 00032 Fmt 6601 Sfmt 6601 S:\FULL COMMITTEE\HEARING FILES\COMMITTEE PRINT 2018\HENRY\JAN. 9 REPORT FOREI-42327 with DISTILLER 27 130 ‘‘Russia’s Putin Signs Foreign Agents Media Law Reuters, Nov. 25, 2017. Joshua Yaffa, ‘‘Dmitry Kiselev Is Redefining the Art of Russian Propaganda New Repub- Download 0.63 Mb. Share with your friends:
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