He might have had no problems embracing iPad and Twitter, but the tech-savvy Medvedev seems to be a late adopter when it comes to good old fashioned press freedom.
A Russian journalist who claims to have been barred from covering his recent news conference is suing the presidential press service and protection unit, reports Radio Liberty’s Russian site. Maria Solovyenko, a muck-raking reporter from the Far East, says bodyguards and press officers denied her access on the day despite her having an accreditation.
Solovyenko suspects that she was blacklisted after confronting Putin at one of his epic news conferences back in 2007. At that time, she was applauded for asking him a tough question about corruption, audaciously addressing the then President as “our incomparable one”.
In addition to Solovyenko, former Russian Newsweek editor Mikhail Fishman was also black-balled. Last year, Fishman was the victim of a internationally-condemned smear campaign involving cocaine, prostitutes, attempted bribery and hidden videocameras. The pro-Kremlin youth group Nashi are suspected to have been behind it.
Given the history, it’s certainly an interesting coincidence that Solovyenko and Fishman found themselves frozen out.
Medvedev seems to have taken a few pages out of his old mentor’s book when it comes to the media. On the same day as the news conference, Putin gave a great example of the kind of press attention acceptable to a Russian leader: in an interview with an American famous for having a ‘man-crush’ on the PM, he had no reservations about answering such searing questions as “Are you the coolest man in politics?”
Whatever their differences, Putin and Medvedev’s shared attitudes to the press certainly pose no threat to the tandem.
On the other hand, it’s not like Medvedev actually killed any journalists. (Neither did Putin, of course!) But he totally could have, so I guess that proves he’s OK with the press.
It’s a bit like that old Soviet joke about Lenin’s compassion towards children:
Lenin’s widow, Krupskaya, is telling a group of young Pioneers:
“Lenin was so kind to children! One morning, he was shaving near an open window. And then a little boy walked past. And Vladimir Ilyich looked at him as he was passing by… and then the boy went away.”
– “So where is the kindness here, Nadezhda Konstantinovna?” one of the kids asked.
-“Don’t you see!? With his razor, he could easily slit the boy’s throat! But didn’t! That’s how kind Lenin was”
