Are We Witnessing the Beginning of a New Russian Thaw? Medvedev Meets "Novaya gazeta" Editor
Dr. Andreas Umland
February 08, 2009
When Vladimir Putin nominated Dmitry Medvedev for becoming Putin's successor as President of the Russian Federation on December 10, 2008, Western observers reacted with relief. Medvedev was the best possible candidate, in Putin's entourage, and the West's preferred choice as a future partner in negotiations – at least, given the alternatives to Medvedev, in the Russian leadership. At the same time, most pundits, in both Russia and the West, were sceptical concerning not only the actual prerogatives which Russia's third president would have, with Putin being Prime-Minister "under" Medvedev. Many also had their doubts concerning the depth and sincerity of the strikingly liberal and democratic world-view that Medvedev had expressed in numerous interviews and articles before his nomination for President. Some saw and see the relatively young lawyer from a family of St. Petersburg intellectuals merely as Putin's puppet. Others suspected that Medvedev's pro-Western talk is just PR, and his nomination for President little more than a cunning move by the Kremlin's shrewd "political technologists."
While the question of Medvedev's actual power remains open, last week's almost one-hour-long meeting of the Russian President with the editor-in-chief of Russia's main independent periodical "Novaya gazeta" (New Newspaper) Dmitry Muratov gives reason for hope. Medvedev had invited Muratov and Mikhail Gorbachev, one of "Novaya gazeta's" major curators and stock-holders, to the Kremlin in reaction to the recent killing of the human-rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov and "Novaya gazeta" correspondent Anastasia Baburova widely discussed in both Russian and Western media. Although the meeting between Medvedev, Muratov and Gorbachev on Januray 29th, 2009 was a closed one, and has, apparently, not been taped, Muratov was given permission by Medvedev to report on their conversation. If we are to believe Muratov's detailed description of the discussion in the Kremlin, Medvedev expressed considerable agreement with Muratov's critical view of recent developments in Russia. In a best-case scenario, this could have far-reaching consequences for Russia's domestic and foreign policies.
The meeting between Medvedev, Muratov and Gorbachev by itself is remarkable. Among the few Russian independent media outlets left, "Novaya gazeta" has been one of the harshest and most respected public critics of the political changes under Vladimir Putin attacking the second Russian President's decisions, in many cases, as scathingly as Western mass media. Muratov's and Gorbachev's meeting with the President in the Kremlin will strengthen the public standing of the embattled newspaper which has been several times on the verge of being closed down. Moreover, Medvedev – according to Muratov's report on the radio station "Ekho Moskvy" – announced a number of initiatives which, if implemented, will challenge the nationalist camp that has become dominant in Russian politics, during the last years. Thus, according to Muratov, Medvedev repeated his previously announced intention to resolutely fight rising Russian neo-fascist tendencies. According to his own report, Muratov replied that democracy, as the only alternative to fascism, and that, in Russia, the remnants of the democratic movement are regularly attacked in mass media. "Medvedev laughed and responded that he does not give any instructions, in that regard, and that, likely, this is a left-over phenomenon concerning those people whom [Muratov] in this conversation called the Kremlin's full-time propaganda employees." It appears that, oddly, Medvedev was thus distancing himself from his own underlings.
Medvedev also spoke out, as he had done before, in favour of humanization of the notorious Russian court, detention and prison system. When Muratov complained about the partial rehabilitation of Stalin in current Russian public discourse, Medvedev agreed that "it is necessary that the people understand and research the period [of Stalin's rule]." The President, according to Muratov, fully supported the initiative of a number of Russian non-governmental organizations and prominent personalities to erect a monument to the victims of Stalinism. Muratov and Medvedev also agreed on the need to fight corruption. In addition, Muratov suggested that the Kremlin's current officials engaged in "silly propaganda" should be replaced with liberal intellectuals like Aleksandr Auzan or Igor Yurgens – a proposal with which Medvedev, allegedly, also agreed.
What is, perhaps, most important is that Muratov was obviously left with a positive impression of Medvedev, and pleasantly surprised by the level of the President's knowledge of Russia's ailments, and the Kremlin's chief ability to listen. It would go to far to speak already of an alliance of Russia's formally most powerful man with Moscow's most respected liberal newspaper. Nevertheless, this meeting could one day be seen as a symbolic and consequential event, in post-Soviet Russia's history. When one of this meeting's participants, former CPSU Central Committee General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, more than twenty years earlier started a comparable rapprochement with Moscow's liberal intellectuals, this move ushered in the democratization of the Soviet Union, and end of the Cold War. Whether Medvedev's demonstrative support for "Novaya gazeta" represents the starting point of a similar transformation remains to be seen.
(An edited version of this text was earlier published in "The Jerusalem Post," Feburary 3, 2009.)
While the question of Medvedev's actual power remains open, last week's almost one-hour-long meeting of the Russian President with the editor-in-chief of Russia's main independent periodical "Novaya gazeta" (New Newspaper) Dmitry Muratov gives reason for hope. Medvedev had invited Muratov and Mikhail Gorbachev, one of "Novaya gazeta's" major curators and stock-holders, to the Kremlin in reaction to the recent killing of the human-rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov and "Novaya gazeta" correspondent Anastasia Baburova widely discussed in both Russian and Western media. Although the meeting between Medvedev, Muratov and Gorbachev on Januray 29th, 2009 was a closed one, and has, apparently, not been taped, Muratov was given permission by Medvedev to report on their conversation. If we are to believe Muratov's detailed description of the discussion in the Kremlin, Medvedev expressed considerable agreement with Muratov's critical view of recent developments in Russia. In a best-case scenario, this could have far-reaching consequences for Russia's domestic and foreign policies.
The meeting between Medvedev, Muratov and Gorbachev by itself is remarkable. Among the few Russian independent media outlets left, "Novaya gazeta" has been one of the harshest and most respected public critics of the political changes under Vladimir Putin attacking the second Russian President's decisions, in many cases, as scathingly as Western mass media. Muratov's and Gorbachev's meeting with the President in the Kremlin will strengthen the public standing of the embattled newspaper which has been several times on the verge of being closed down. Moreover, Medvedev – according to Muratov's report on the radio station "Ekho Moskvy" – announced a number of initiatives which, if implemented, will challenge the nationalist camp that has become dominant in Russian politics, during the last years. Thus, according to Muratov, Medvedev repeated his previously announced intention to resolutely fight rising Russian neo-fascist tendencies. According to his own report, Muratov replied that democracy, as the only alternative to fascism, and that, in Russia, the remnants of the democratic movement are regularly attacked in mass media. "Medvedev laughed and responded that he does not give any instructions, in that regard, and that, likely, this is a left-over phenomenon concerning those people whom [Muratov] in this conversation called the Kremlin's full-time propaganda employees." It appears that, oddly, Medvedev was thus distancing himself from his own underlings.
Medvedev also spoke out, as he had done before, in favour of humanization of the notorious Russian court, detention and prison system. When Muratov complained about the partial rehabilitation of Stalin in current Russian public discourse, Medvedev agreed that "it is necessary that the people understand and research the period [of Stalin's rule]." The President, according to Muratov, fully supported the initiative of a number of Russian non-governmental organizations and prominent personalities to erect a monument to the victims of Stalinism. Muratov and Medvedev also agreed on the need to fight corruption. In addition, Muratov suggested that the Kremlin's current officials engaged in "silly propaganda" should be replaced with liberal intellectuals like Aleksandr Auzan or Igor Yurgens – a proposal with which Medvedev, allegedly, also agreed.
What is, perhaps, most important is that Muratov was obviously left with a positive impression of Medvedev, and pleasantly surprised by the level of the President's knowledge of Russia's ailments, and the Kremlin's chief ability to listen. It would go to far to speak already of an alliance of Russia's formally most powerful man with Moscow's most respected liberal newspaper. Nevertheless, this meeting could one day be seen as a symbolic and consequential event, in post-Soviet Russia's history. When one of this meeting's participants, former CPSU Central Committee General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, more than twenty years earlier started a comparable rapprochement with Moscow's liberal intellectuals, this move ushered in the democratization of the Soviet Union, and end of the Cold War. Whether Medvedev's demonstrative support for "Novaya gazeta" represents the starting point of a similar transformation remains to be seen.
(An edited version of this text was earlier published in "The Jerusalem Post," Feburary 3, 2009.)
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