Russia is among the top three nations where press freedom has deteriorated the most over the last five years, reports RFE/RL
A new report, compiled by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists
to mark World Press Freedom Day today, found that almost a dozen journalists in Russia have been murdered since 2002. The report focuses on the 10 countries where press freedom has most deteriorated. Russia stands in third place, below Ethiopia and Gambia.
The U.S. State Department
also criticized Russian media freedom this week and expressed “grave concern”
over the October killing of investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya
The violent crackdown on last weekend's March of the Dissenters points to the increased paranoia of the Russian government elite ahead of the December 2007 parliamentary and the March 2008 presidential elections, according to Moscow Times' columnist Georgy Bovt
. The use of excessive force of the security troops and the careful planning of the crackdown show that Kremlin elite is not willing to leave anything to chance.
There is a question of 'why'. Putin's standing remains high, Russian economy is booming and foreign investors keep pouring funds into the Russian stock market. As Sonja Margolina writes in Frankfurter Rundschau
(here is the original article in German)
"only through a monstrous hall of mirrors could one see in the handful of opposition members without resources and support, anything approaching "orange revolutionaries" or Western-influenced conspirators." She sees the late events as a "symptom of the political crisis that seems to be gripping the Putinesque vertical at the nadir of its un-challenged power."
A Kremlin spokesman said Tuesday that the beating of demonstrators at opposition rallies in Moscow and St. Petersburg over the weekend was an "overreaction" by riot police who were attempting to ensure "law and order on the streets." Read more...
The White House voiced criticism of this weekend's events in Moscow and St. Petersburg. The White House spokeswoman Dana Perino specifically talked about the emerging pattern of excessive force used by the Russian authorities and the crackdown on the freedom of press. Read more here...
However, as the AP article reports "opinion polls rate Putin as Russia’s most popular political figure by far, thanks to newfound political stability and rapid economic growth fueled by high world oil prices. That popularity has cowed mainstream politicians in parliament and allowed Putin to strengthen the Kremlin’s powers."
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