– had his two channels, ORT and TV-6, wrested from his control the latter was shut down. Boris Berezovsky – an oligarch now in exile in the U.K.
Soon after becoming President (acting from 1999-2000, then formally elected in May 2000), Putin moved to bend the major TV channels to his will, defying Western expectations for Russia’s convergence and integration with the “West”.Ģ003 marked the beginning of the end for true press freedom in Russia. Unfortunately, his accession marked the beginning of the end for any semblance of true press freedom in Russia – it is posited, as a result of his fear of the power of the media were it to turn against him. He, thus, clearly understood the power of the media. Remarkably, despite Yeltsin’s virtually non-existent popularity, the media support propelled him to re-election in the second round in July.Īt that time, Putin was Deputy Chief of the Presidential Property Management Department, before he became Deputy Chief of Staff to the President in early 1997.
Those media bodies, evidently frightful of the threatened control, rallied behind Yeltsin to such a degree that their support was considered a threat to fair elections in Russia. It is necessary to set up effective public control over state TV and radio broadcasting.” In the course of the 1996 Russian Presidential election campaign, Gennady Zyuganov, leader of the Communist Party and challenger to the incumbent, Boris Yeltsin, pledged: “we will take care of the country’s information security.