Johnson's
Russia List
2015-#118
16 June 2015
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A project sponsored through the Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian
Studies (IERES) at The George Washington University's
Elliott School of International Affairs*
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JRL homepage: www.russialist.org
#6
www.thedailybeast.com
June 15, 2015
Confessions of Moscow's Last Independent Radio Newsman
In an exclusive interview, the courageous editor in chief of Echo of Moscow
radio talks about his complex relations with Putin, and the scandal that's
shaken his station.
By Anna Nemtsova
MOSCOW - Not many in Russia nowadays could give you a revealing look inside the
head of Russian President Vladimir Putin, but Alexei Venediktov
has been there. Over the last 15 years, the editor in chief of the independent
radio station Echo of Moscow has spent many hours chatting, arguing, and
philosophizing with the Russian president.
As Venediktov and I talked the other day in his
Moscow office, he said there was one particular conversation with Putin that
stuck in his mind. It lasted for two and a half hours back in 2000. Putin had
just come back from Vidyayevo in the Arctic Circle,
while Russia was still in mourning over the accidental sinking of the nuclear
submarine Kursk with 118 crewmen on board.
"He kept me for a philosophical discussion-what else could two non-stupid
men of the same age do but talk philosophy," said Venediktov.
One was a product of the KGB, the other a key figure in the struggle for
freedom of speech, and Venediktov asked Putin how he
planned to deal with his critics and the opposition.
"Putin told me that he saw two kinds of opponents: betrayers and
enemies." Defining and labeling opponents was
always the most crucial part of Putin's world view, Venediktov
said.
Many radio news reporters are unseen faces, but Venediktov,
with his cloud of curly gray hair and his checked shirts, is well-known to the
public, and on this day his face was unusually sad. He is heartbroken by the
political course Russia has taken under Putin, and also by a series of damaging
scandals that have shaken Echo to its foundations.
To Putin, "enemies" are those who fight him openly. "Sometimes
he makes peace with them, draws borders, then again begins the war. Putin
defined 'betrayers' as those who first pretended they were his friends and as
soon as he grew weak stabbed him in his back. 'No mercy to betrayers,' he told
me," the editor said. And when Venediktov
wondered how Putin defined him, he was told that by Putin's lights he was an
enemy. "True," said Venediktov. "I
always played against Putin openly and honestly. That was probably why Echo has
still survived."
But the game in Russia has gotten very rough for people perceived by Putin or
his allies as their enemies. Venediktov has lived
under a constant threat of assassination. Since Jan. 9, he has doubled the
number of his bodyguards. "Might not save me, but I feel a bit more
confident," he told me. "Chechen leader Ramzan
Kadyrov considers me an enemy of Islam and friend of
Charlie Hebdo; Kadyrov
promised there would be somebody to punish me, and a month and a half later
some people killed [political opposition leader] Boris Nemtsov,
whom Kadyrov had threatened, too, in the same
fashion."
About a million Muscovites and many more across the country love to listen to
Echo and read its website. The Echo community has fretted every time their
radio station has been on the verge of getting killed.
But this time it is not only the Kremlin threatening Russia's only independent
radio station, the danger also has come from within. Echo was shaken by series
of noisy scandals that seemed all the more disgraceful because it is such a
respected institution. One after another the radio's longtime
guest authors and speakers, including former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov
and novelist Boris Akunin, have chosen to boycott Venediktov and his radio station.
The apple of discord is a 23-year old blond woman, Lesya
Ryabtseva, Venediktov's
personal assistant, who has shown herself capable of extraordinary boorishness
and vulgarity in a series of vulgar blog posts that aggressively target
Russia's key opposition leaders. On Echo's website, she has called them
"spineless jerks who lie to themselves." Fans of the station who've
been appalled by her behavior note that she lacks
expertise and authority, she confuses facts, uses curse words, and publicly
insults Echo's oldest guests and Venediktov
personally.
You'd think those would be firing offenses. But no. To the surprise of all his
friends, Venediktov did not dismiss his personal
assistant, even after Echo's founder, Sergei Korzun,
quit his job at the station, saying that Ryabtseva
was "dangerous for the mental health" of Echo and its audience. For
her part, as if to further humiliate her boss, she has even suggested that sex
played a role in his decision making.
One of the most popular of Echo's guest speakers, satirist Victor Shenderovich, tells The Daily Beast, "Venediktov is either madly in love, which I don't believe;
or he deliberately decided to damage Echo by turning it into a stinking closet,
so we feel disgusted with that rubbish and all quit."
I asked Venediktov point blank: "Is Ryabtseva more important for you than Echo?"
"No," he said, "this is not a choice between Ryabtseva
or anybody else and Echo of Moscow but a choice of our basic principles: Echo
gives voice to everybody, including those who represent the majority and also
including radicals," and then he added, "It's me who suffered most of
all from Ryabtseva's comments."
Echo of Moscow should turn 25 year old this summer. For any celebrity or
political leader, Echo's studios, cluttered with papers and old furniture, have
been a must-stop on a visit in Moscow. (A joke about Bill Clinton and Venediktov kicking each other under the table during last
week's live show has already become a part of Echo's history.) Venediktov has interviewed U.S. Secretaries of State Hilary
Clinton, Colin Powell, and Condoleezza Rice, as well as Richard Gere and Liza Minnelli, Angela Merkel, Jacques Chirac,
Gerhard Schröder, and many more famous figures.
And then, again and again, Echo's boss spoke with Putin, Putin's friends and
team members, who today condemned everybody who has a different opinion, as
non-patriots, or betrayers, or enemies.
"Many out there are keen on warming up by the fire of Putin's fury," Venediktov said, considering the idea with a grin. He is
proud of Echo's journalism, of broadcasting voices from the higher floors of
mostly opaque Kremlin hierarchy. Echo's voices continue to criticize the
Kremlin for the war in Ukraine, for anti-Western propaganda, for persecuting
the opposition.
"Many politicians claim that Echo of Moscow is not behaving," said Venediktov. "They accuse us of being U.S. State
Department's radio, enemy radio. They give me all sorts of names a Gasprom, a jihadi or an Assad
agent-OK, these are all their own difficulties," Venediktov
said looking though the window at the cityscape of the Russian capital.
Venediktov said he has told Putin face to face about
the most damaging side of his politics. "I told Putin that he burned to
death all competition, all alternative opinions in all spheres-now everything,
including aggressive lies and propaganda about Ukraine is the consequence. The
competition's been destroyed when it comes to decisions on the economy, in the
political field, in opposition and in ideology-as a result obscurantism took
over in all decisions."
Venediktov said he felt heartbroken seeing how
isolated Russia has become. And after Putin, he warns, it could be even worse.
"If instead of Putin some really bloodthirsty creature comes to power-and
I am sure that creature is waiting in Putinist
disguise right now-the institutions are ready for Stalinization."