After protests, the opposition’s Democratic Coalition has managed to get itself reinstated to the ballot for local elections in Kostroma, although one campaign worker has been jailed and another faces charges.
Welcome to our column, Russia Update, where we will be closely following day-to-day developments in Russia, including the Russian government’s foreign and domestic policies.
The previous issue is here.
Welcome to our column, Russia Update, where we will be closely following day-to-day developments in Russia, including the Russian government’s foreign and domestic policies.
The previous issue is here.
Special features:
– ‘I Was on Active Duty’: Interview with Captured GRU Officer Aleksandrov
– Meet The Russian Fighters Building A Base Between Mariupol And Donetsk
– ‘There Was No Buk in Our Field’
– With Cash and Conspiracy Theories, Russian Orthodox Philanthropist Malofeyev is Useful to the Kremlin
UPDATES BELOW
Translation: Attack dogs of the British regime.
The banner was placed across the street from the offices of TV Rain, the last independent TV station in Russia, Vzglyad reported.
Aleksei Zhuravlyov, a member of the State Duma, is the current head
of the Rodina party founded by Vice Premier Dmitry Rogozin which organized the meeting of Russian nationalists and European far right party members in May.
In a series of tweets yesterday, he advocated “import substitution,” i.e. an end to foreign broadcasting in Russia and substitution with domestic fare, even as he advocated that Russia steps up its broadcasting abroad to further its interests.
The 10-meter banner was said to be made by an “art community”
called “Glavplakat” which translates as a “Main Poster Agency” as if it
were a government body.
Simultaneously — and begging the question of how much art inspiration was involved — a lengthy article appeared yesterday in Izvestiya, claiming the two independent Russian media
outlets were funded and controlled by the British government. The group also published the poster on Facebook and VKontakte.
The poster and article were said to be a reaction to information
recently declassified from the House of Commons Foreign Affairs
Committee on the activity of the British Foreign Ministry, Vzglyad reported.
According to Izvestiya,
the document said TV Rain and RBC cooperated with the BBC and
“provided information from the Russian audience necessary to the British
Foreign Ministry” (translation by The Interpreter):
As the authors of the report state, such a policy of
‘soft power’ is extremely effective for the advancement of the interests of
Great Britain abroad and in this situation, the Foreign Office’s grants
to finance foreign broadcasting should not be reduced. Representatives
of Rain and RBC have stated that their work for the BBC is not
compensated, although experts are certain that direct financing is
possible. The collaboration between RBC and Rain with the BBC continues
to this day — this is obvious from the programming of the TV channels.
Experts are confident: the ‘soft power’ used by the British authorities
is the advancement of national interests under the guise of education
and cultural cooperation.
The Izvestiya article did not name the experts or supply any evidence that RBC and Rain received any payment for their cooperation.
Citing the British report, Izvestiya said that the BBC ran a 10-minute news program from Rain during their 24-hour broadcasting cycle.
Mikhail
Zygar, editor-in-chief of TV Rain, noted that BBC journalists
themselves decide what to cover from Russian television (translation by The Interpreter):
The BBC determines the topic of the broadcasts itself.
From our part, there is only one condition: none of our partners can
violate the law, and we monitor this strictly. Even if they are in
another country, they have to fulfil all the conditions of Russian law.
Izvestiya said
they obtained a financial report for the BBC for 2013-2014 which says
that “Russian television broadcast and two partner channels — Rain and
RBC — function well and weekly reach an audience of 3.2 million
viewers.” But no indication of any payment was cited.
Aleksei
Zuychenko, deputy editor of RBC said he would not disclose the details
of the relationship with the BBC since this was a “commercial secret”:
“We order some materials from them or simply try to learn
the British perspective on an issue, commentators are included for a few
minutes and expound on it.”
Izvestiya cited a
source close to the RBC leadership that said RBC does not receive
payment from the BBC for placing British content, and they are glad to
have the free, high-quality content to fill up their air time on a tight
budget.
A representative from the BBC’s World Service told Izvestiya that
the BBC has media partnerships all over the world. In 2014, the World Service ceased receiving funding directly from the Foreign Office and is now funded from British television license fees.
Izvestiya also cited an
unidentified “top manager of a federal television channel” who said that
he did not believe the independent media outlets were not funded by the
British government because each year US and British government “spend
millions of dollars on the advancement of their ideology in Russia.” He
also complained about problems that the Kremlin’s propaganda station
RT.com has had in the UK recently.
Another source said that BBC
commentators avoided criticism of what he described as British
censorship and added that Rain’s “chief purpose was the destabilization”
of Russia.
— Catherine A. Fitzpatrick
Yesterday, after opposition activists filed a complaint, the Central Elections Commission overturned a July 8 decision of the Kostroma Elections Commission to block opposition candidates and sent it for review. The opposition members said they were certain that Kostroma election officials had improperly disqualified their signatures to get alternative candidates on the ballot.
Translation: Parnas with Yashin has been reinstated in the elections in Kostroma, Volkov has been chosen as campaign head.
Sign: “Free Pivovarov” [jailed campaign worker]
Ilya Yashin, a leader of the opposition’s Democratic Commission and Parnas member said (translation by The Interpreter):
The
Kremlin’s calculation is obvious: to save face, but register us in such
a way that there is very little time for campaigning and so that we
lose. The Elections Commission did everything to put us on unequal terms
with the other parties which have been campaigning for a long time
already. But we were able to break through these calculations. We have a
fair number of reasons for optimism.
Parnas is last place on the
ballot sheet since the challenging of their signatures means that they
missed the casting of lots for positions.
Meanwhile, a criminal
investigation has been opened against opposition leader Leonid Volkov,
who is still on a hunger strike in protest against the blocking of the
opposition in the city of Novosibirsk.
Andrei Pivovarov, the former head of the opposition’s local campaign headquarters is
in pre-trial detention on charges of “unlawful access to computer
information” after he went to a police station, where residences are registered, to inquire about claims of
incorrect information on some signatures.
Alexey Navalny and
Mikhail Kasyanov, leaders of the Democratic Coalition, have put forward
their nominations in four regions: Kostroma, Novosibirsk, Magadan and
Kaluga.
Translation: Tomorrow morning I am going to Kostroma. Winning these damned elections is, among other things, the best means of getting Pivovarov out of jail.
— Catherine A. Fitzpatrick