DOCSLIB.ORG

What Is to Be Done? - Print Document - Proquest

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
What Is to Be Done? - Print Document - Proquest 11/10/11 What is to be done? - Print document - ProQuest Back to document What is to be done? Kotkin, Stephen. FT.com (Mar 3, 2004): 1. Find a copy http://sfx.princeton.edu:9003/sfx_pul? genre=article&sid=ProQ:&atitle=What+is+to+be+done%3F&title=FT.com&issn=&date=2004-03- 03&volume=1&issue=&spage=1&au=Kotkin%2C+Stephen Full Text Translate [unavailable for this document] A country ravaged for seven decades by the secret police elects a former colonel of that police as president: after one term, he's more popular than ever and is on the verge of a landslide re- election. A few weeks before that election, he fires his entire cabinet. This is seen as an act of wisdom. The country's communists, who sometimes march bearing portraits of Stalin, stand up for the prerogatives of parliament and protest against creeping dictatorship - only to be trounced at the ballot box. Would-be barons grab on a continental scale and, when expropriated by the state, get defended by NGOs dedicated to the memory of millions of political prisoners. Such is the paradoxical nature of Vladimir Putin's Russia. After the Soviet state cracked open, a freewheeling media, NGOs, new religions and billionaires arose in the cracks. Little of this was based upon secure private property, an independent and powerful judiciary, or genuine parliamentary (as opposed to "presidential") rule. The illiberal state institutions that were inherited by the newly independent countries began to regroup, and these hyper- executive bodies found few obstacles to closing the cracks - a grim process, first visible in Central Asia. Non-state media were shut down or taken over, NGOs forced out of existence or underground, private enterprises confiscated, internet routing points policed. The newly elected elites found that governing a modern society - encouraging private investment, building public infrastructure, combating crime and Aids - was extremely hard. But for them, surveillance and persecution are second nature. All this has provoked howls about the overturning of "democracy". It's an understandable lament, but it emanates from a misinterpretation of the 1990s, when disarray rather than institutionalised rule of law prevailed. The present offensive on the part of the central state (less successful than either proponents or critics claim) cannot be credited solely to Putin - any more than Ukraine's can be attributed to Leonid Kuchma, Belarus's to Aleksandr Lukashenka, Uzbekistan's to Islam Karimov, Kazakhstan's to Nursultan Nazarbaev, Turkmenistan's to Saparmurat Niyazov, and the rest. The phenomenon is not Putin, it is structural - a Soviet hangover. It is with this in mind that we have to assess the Russian president's anticipated sweep at the polls on March 14, as well as the future of Eurasia. Just two decades ago, in the great Orwellian year, Konstantin Chernenko, then dying of emphysema, succeeded Yuri Andropov, who had just died of kidney failure. In a semiconscious state, Chernenko became the fifth general secretary of an empire with nearly 300 million souls, more than half-a-dozen dependencies on three continents, nearly six million soldiers, comparable legions in overlapping administrative agencies, 40,000 nuclear warheads, an even greater cache of chemical and biological weapons, and tens of thousands of elephantine factories mass-manufacturing toxicities in 11 time zones. It was utterly out of sync and a throwback to the epoch between the world wars, yet still very formidable: a wheezing dinosaur, but one with fearsome teeth. Almost alone, the political- prisoner-then-exile, Andrei Amalrik, forecast demise - in Will the search.proquest.com/docprintview/228891078/fulltext/132F60167D83F7E01F/50?accountid=13314 1/8 11/10/11 What is to be done? - Print document - ProQuest Soviet Union Survive Until 1984? - but he foresaw collapse resulting from a cataclysmic war with China. Such a confrontation may come to pass, but it will be too late for the Soviet Union. Chernenko's brief, oxygen-tank rule expired in 1985. That same year, Saudi Arabia abruptly cranked up oil production, knocking down the price of crude to one of its lowest levels since the second world war - a bruising lesson administered to non-Opec producers, including the Soviet Union. With the world transfixed by the arrival of Mikhail Gorbachev, the vigorous new general secretary, Riyadh's move drew less attention than it should. But for the Soviet Union, it was momentous: it meant that Gorbachev's incipient perestroika was instantly fleeced of much of its hard-currency receipts. Most Soviet crude was being consumed at home, profligately, or supplied at a fraction of market prices to the Communist bloc, but exports to the capitalist world, around two million barrels a day, filled Kremlin coffers and paid for imports of strategic technologies, from state-of-the-art electronics to soap. The plunge in prices was a disaster: perestroika was indelibly joined to privation. Less than six years after the Saudi action, the Soviet Union was gone, and its successors were broke. And you thought the Polish pope brought down Communism? Mendacity hollowed out what turned out to be an easily toppled edifice, lies having enveloped every aspect of the Soviet system. Dissident and secret policeman agreed on this; Alexander Solzhenitsyn had long insisted on it, and later so did Nikolai Leonov, the KGB's chief analyst. But hydrocarbons - which had looked like a Soviet strong point - proved to be an unexpected Achilles heel. In retrospect, it's clear that the 1980s involved a petroleum price war over world-market share that Riyadh won and that Moscow - possibly without being fully cognisant of the contest - lost. The Soviets' calamitous loss of oil revenues was worsened by a steep decline in extraction, a consequence of the perverse incentives and exploitative practices of the command economy. By the mid-1990s, production in the Commonwealth of Independent States had plummeted to fewer than seven million barrels a day, from a high of 12.5 million in 1987/88. Of that, Russia's output accounted for around six million - a fall-off of 5.5 million, which equalled the total output of all but one Opec producer. Russia not only surrendered world-market share: it faced the expensive prospect of oil imports. Toward the end of the 1990s, though, something else astonishing took place. Russia's oil sector - privatised via insider deals that might make Wall Street blush, or more likely, turn green - emerged re-energised by new drilling techniques and management. In 2003, having increased output for the fifth straight year, Russia produced between seven and eight million barrels a day. And whereas high-end estimates of combined output within a decade for Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan - Kuwaits on the Caspian - come in at five million barrels a day, Russia's production could rise to double that, the immediate limiting factor being transport. True, world prices have remained high for some time, but achievements in cost-cutting could cushion Russian producers in the event of a world price decline. Overall, Big Oil in Russia has some distance to go in developing new fields and attending to a despoiled environment, but its surprise rejuvenation is a very big story, with global implications for some time to come. No country anticipating economic growth over the next half- century can ignore Russia. Saudi Arabia is credited with 25 per cent of "proven oil reserves", but Russia's estimates are lowballed because of the presumed costs of extraction in rugged locations. Because extraction costs with current technology exceed projected revenues, Russia's full underground holdings do not count as proven reserves - until new extraction technologies emerge. Factor in natural gas: Russia commands one-third of the global gas reservoir, more than double second-place Iran. Keep in mind, too, that geography and geopolitics render Turkmenistan - with among the largest proven gas reserves in the world - a wholly owned subsidiary of Russia. Ditto for Uzbekistan's natural gas. As the full scope of Russia's fossil fuel holdings and distribution powers slowly sinks in, it has been undergoing a shift from a regional to a global energy provider. Geographically, Russia could scarcely be better positioned, abutting expanding markets in Europe and especially Asia. Stalin never possessed such leverage, because Russia's biggest oil and gas discoveries were made after his death. Politically, the feared bogey in 1990s Russia was Communist restoration. This spectre stirred Washington to open up the IMF's sluices to support not macroeconomic stabilisation but the re- election of the unpopular Boris Yeltsin to a second presidential term. The slogan for the oft-hospitalised, resolutely anti- Communist Yeltsin could well have been "Better Dead than Red." In any case, it suited many people's interests inside Russia, too, to cast the election in Manichean terms: democracy - however imperfect - versus revanche, whose scariest incarnation entailed a red-brown coalition, or fascist-communist crossbreed. Yeltsin won with the help of discriminatory media and unchecked recourse to administrative resources: above all, the state budget. Who foresaw that his victory in 1996 over the Communist presidential candidate, in the name of preserving democracy, would be followed by the apparent revival a few years later of authoritarianism under the tutelage of Communist-era KGB men? Surprises can be fun, but I doubt this development would qualify (as a surprise). That's because the Soviet Union, besides having been a hydrocarbon colossus, also was search.proquest.com/docprintview/228891078/fulltext/132F60167D83F7E01F/50?accountid=13314 2/8 11/10/11 What is to be done? - Print document - ProQuest a social formation. Contrary to the prevailing view that totalitarianism eliminated organised society, the Soviet system created its own society: immense social facts on the ground, rooted in institutional structures such as the KGB.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • UC Davis UC Davis Previously Published Works
    UC Davis UC Davis Previously Published Works Title Two-phase flow in rotating hele-shaw cells with coriolis effects Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/52f0s67h Journal Interfaces and Free Boundaries, 15(2) ISSN 1463-9963 Authors Escher, J Guidotti, P Walker, C Publication Date 2013-10-07 DOI 10.4171/IFB/302 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Access provided by University of California, Davis (25 Mar 2013 14:58 GMT) T HE A MERICAS 69:4/April 2013/493–507 COPYRIGHT BY THE ACADEMY OF AMERICAN FRANCISCAN HISTOR Y ACCIDENTAL HISTORIAN: An Interview with Arnold J. Bauer ppreciated among Latin Americanists in the United States and highly regarded in Chile, Arnold (“Arnie”) Bauer taught history at A the University of California at Davis from 1970 to 2005, and was director of the University of California’s Education Abroad Program in San- tiago, Chile, for five years between 1994 and 2005. Well-known for his engaging writing style, Bauer reflects broad interests in his publications: agrarian history (Chilean Rural Society: From the Spanish Conquest to 1930 [1975]), the Catholic Church and society (as editor, La iglesia en la economía de América Latina, siglos XIX–XIX [1986]), and material culture (Goods, Power, History: Latin America’s Material Culture [2001]). He has also written an academic mystery regarding a sixteenth-century Mexican codex, The Search for the Codex Cardona (2009). His coming-of-age memoir (Time’s Shadow: Remembering a Family Farm in Kansas [2012]) describes his childhood and was recently named one of the top five books of 2012 by The Atlantic.
    [Show full text]
  • Social Media and Civil Society in the Russian Protests, December 2011
    Department of Informatics and Media Social Science – major in Media and Communication Studies Fall 2013 Master Two Years Thesis Social Media and Civil Society in the Russian Protests, December 2011 The role of social media in engagement of people in the protests and their self- identification with civil society Daria Dmitrieva Fall 2013 Supervisor: Dr. Gregory Simons Researcher at Uppsala Centre for Russian and Eurasian Studies 1 2 ABSTRACT The study examines the phenomenon of the December protests in Russia when thousands of citizens were involved in the protest movement after the frauds during the Parliamentary elections. There was a popular opinion in the Internet media that at that moment Russia experienced establishment of civil society, since so many people were ready to express their discontent publically for the first time in 20 years. The focus of this study is made on the analysis of the roles that social media played in the protest movement. As it could be observed at the first glance, recruiting and mobilising individuals to participation in the rallies were mainly conducted via social media. The research analyses the concept of civil society and its relevance to the protest rhetoric and investigates, whether there was a phenomenon of civil society indeed and how it was connected to individuals‘ motivation for joining the protest. The concept of civil society is discussed through the social capital, social and political trust, e- democracy and mediatisation frameworks. The study provides a comprehensive description of the events, based on mainstream and new media sources, in order to depict the nature and the development of the movement.
    [Show full text]
  • Dead Heroes and Living Saints: Orthodoxy
    Dead Heroes and Living Saints: Orthodoxy, Nationalism, and Militarism in Contemporary Russia and Cyprus By Victoria Fomina Submitted to Central European University Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Supervisors: Professor Vlad Naumescu Professor Dorit Geva CEU eTD Collection Budapest, Hungary 2019 Budapest, Hungary Statement I hereby declare that this dissertation contains no materials accepted for any other degrees in any other institutions and no materials previously written and / or published by any other person, except where appropriate acknowledgement is made in the form of bibliographical reference. Victoria Fomina Budapest, August 16, 2019 CEU eTD Collection i Abstract This dissertation explores commemorative practices in contemporary Russia and Cyprus focusing on the role heroic and martyrical images play in the recent surge of nationalist movements in Orthodox countries. It follows two cases of collective mobilization around martyr figures – the cult of the Russian soldier Evgenii Rodionov beheaded in Chechen captivity in 1996, and two Greek Cypriot protesters, Anastasios Isaak and Solomos Solomou, killed as a result of clashes between Greek and Turkish Cypriot protesters during a 1996 anti- occupation rally. Two decades after the tragic incidents, memorial events organized for Rodionov and Isaak and Solomou continue to attract thousands of people and only seem to grow in scale, turning their cults into a platform for the production and dissemination of competing visions of morality and social order. This dissertation shows how martyr figures are mobilized in Russia and Cyprus to articulate a conservative moral project built around nationalism, militarized patriotism, and Orthodox spirituality.
    [Show full text]
  • The Kremlin's Proxy War on Independent Journalism
    Reuters Institute Fellowship Paper University of Oxford WEEDING OUT THE UPSTARTS: THE KREMLIN’S PROXY WAR ON INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM by Alexey Eremenko Trinity Term 2015 Sponsor: The Wincott Foundation 1 Table of Contents: ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 3 INTRODUCTION 4 1. INTERNET & FREEDOM 7 1.1 STATISTICAL OVERVIEW 7 1.2 MEDIA REGULATIONS 8 1.3 SITES USED 9 2. ‘LINKS OF THE GODDAMN CHAIN’ 12 2.1 EDITORIAL TAKEOVER 12 2.2 DIRECT HIT 17 2.3 FINDINGS 22 3. THE MISSING LINKS 24 3.1 THE UNAFFECTED 24 3.2 WHAT’S NOT DONE 26 4. MORE PUTIN! A CASE STUDY IN COVERAGE CHANGE 30 4.1 CATEGORIES 30 4.2 KEYWORDS 31 4.3 STORY SUBJECTS 32 4.4 SENTIMENT ANALYSIS 32 5. CONCLUSIONS 36 BIBLIOGRAPHY 38 2 Acknowledgments I am immensely grateful, first and foremost, to the fellows at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, whose expertise and good spirits made for a Platonic ideal of a research environment. James Painter and John Lloyd provided invaluable academic insight, and my past and present employers at the Moscow Times and NBC News, respectively, have my undying gratitude for agreeing to spare me for three whole eventful months, an eternity in the news gathering business. Finally, my sponsor, the Wincott Foundation, and the Reuters Institute itself, believed in me and my topic enough to make this paper possible and deserve the ultimate credit for whatever meager contribution it makes to the academia and, hopefully, upholding the freedom of speech in the world. 3 Introduction “Freedom of speech was and remains a sacrosanct value of the Russian democracy,” Russian leader Vladimir Putin said in his first state of the nation in 2000.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction: Looking Back at Brezhnev 1 Peter Rutland And
    Introduction: Looking back at Brezhnev 1 Peter Rutland and Victoria Smolkin-Rothrock2 In the West, the Soviet Union is now viewed as a historical dead-end, a doomed experiment that eventually collapsed under the weight of its own contradictions. Extrapolating back from the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991, it is often assumed that the Soviet Union was ‘bound’ to fail. The Soviet Union was ruled by a stultified bureaucracy under which citizens enjoyed very limited personal freedom, dissidents were ruthlessly persecuted, and only stringent controls on communication with the outside world enabled the system to survive. The attempt to build a centrally-planned economy on principles antithetical to the market led to colossal inefficiency and stagnant growth. Moscow’s competition with the United States for global hegemony brought the world to the brink of nuclear war and fueled bitter conflicts from Afghanistan to Angola. In contrast, many Russians now view the Soviet Union of Leonid Brezhnev, who was General Secretary from 1964 to 1982, as something of a golden age: a society in which citizens could lead a secure and predictable life, where living standards were rising every year, and where their children could receive a good education and stable careers. Levada Center polls show Brezhnev to be the most popular leader of the 20th century.3 Even some Russian intellectuals look back at the Brezhnev years as an era of fervent creativity. Writer Dmitrii Bykov goes so far as to describe the 1970s as “our silver age, when culture and science evolved at a rapid pace,” producing such towering figures of artistic and moral authority as Vladimir Vysotsky, Andrei Tarkovsky and Andrei Sakharov.4 Opinion polls looking back at the Brezhnev era, of course, must be interpreted with caution.
    [Show full text]
  • La Inteligencia Soviética En América Latina Durante La Guerra Fría*
    CONFERENCIA LA INTELIGENCIA SOVIÉTICA EN AMÉRICA LATINA DURANTE LA GUERRA FRÍA* Nikolai Leonov En estas páginas se presenta una transcripción de la charla y del diálogo que sostuvo el general Nikolai Leonov, ex vicedirector del Comité de Seguridad del Estado (KGB) de la ex URSS, en el Centro de Estudios Públicos el 22 de septiembre de 1998. Tras ofrecer su visión de las directrices que orientaron la política exterior soviética en el Tercer Mundo durante la guerra fría, el general Leonov destaca aquí el papel decisivo que jugó la Revolución cubana en la política soviética hacia América Latina, y señala que tanto Cuba (triunfo del socialismo sin intervención extranjera) como Chile (instauración del socialismo por la vía electoral) constituyeron dos hitos para las fuerzas socialistas en el mundo entero. Respecto de Chile, además, se refiere a la ayuda prestada por la URSS al gobierno de Salvador Allende, revelando que en el verano boreal de 1973 se habría apro- bado el envío de armamento soviético (artillería, tanques) para el ejército chileno, pero que, al recibir después información acerca de El general (R) Nikolai Leonov fue Vicedirector del Comité de Seguridad del Estado (KGB) de la Unión Soviética entre 1983 y enero de 1991, el segundo cargo más importante dentro de la estructura del KGB. Anteriormente fue Vicedirector del Departamento de Análi- sis e Información del KGB (1973-1982) y Vicedirector del Departamento de América Latina del KGB (1968-1972). El general Leonov es doctor en Historia de América Latina, Academia de Ciencias de la URSS, y autor del libro Ensayos de historia contemporánea de América Central (Moscú: Ed.
    [Show full text]
  • Powereliteofcuba.Pdf
    POWER ELITE OF CUBA General of the Army Raúl Castro (86 years old) First Secretary of the Communist Party An intolerant Marxist-Leninist, Raúl Castro is a highly organized, cautious and clannish leader with an unwavering commitment to Communism, Russia, Iran and Venezuela. In March 1953, Raúl traveled to Vienna (four months before the “Moncada”) to attend the Moscow sponsored World Youth Conference. Afterwards, he went to Budapest, Prague and Bucharest. He liked what he saw. During this trip he established a long-lasting friendship with Nikolai Leonov, a KGB espionage officer that later turned out to be a useful link with the Kremlin. Raúl recalled that from that moment on “he was ready to die for the Communist cause.” Declassified KGB documents offer evidence that Fidel Castro “deliberately made a Marxist of Raul.” At 22, back in Cuba, Raúl joined the Cuban Communist Party Youth Branch (CCP). Latter while in Mexico for the “Granma” operation, Raúl struck up a close ideological friendship with Ernesto “Che” Guevara and forged a commitment to create a Marxist society in Cuba. In 1963, Raúl was the official link between Fidel and Nikita Khrushchev to deploy nuclear missiles in Cuba. At 86, he still remains strongly attached to his lifelong ideology. While he is healthy and running Cuba, individual rights and private property will be forbidden in the island. (A car and a house are the exceptions). There are reports stating that Raúl is having health issues. Commander of the Rebel Army José Machado Ventura (87 years old) Second Secretary of the Communist Party A medical doctor, Machado was appointed to the Politburo in 1975.
    [Show full text]
  • 23668 RO Fall.Qxd
    Fall 2008 The Georgia Watershed By Leon Aron On August 8, following Georgia’s reckless attack on the Russia-supported separatist enclave of South Ossetia, Russia invaded Georgia. For the first time in post-Soviet history, Russian troops crossed the internationally recognized border of a sovereign neighboring state. Yet there were several other lines that may have been crossed. This short war looks more and more like a culmination and an emblem of the troubling evolution in the Kremlin’s values and priorities and, by extension, its vision of the country’s national interests. It may have heralded the onset of a distinct, and profoundly disconcerting, agenda both inside and outside the country. What has been said and done by the Russian authorities since last August strengthens this impression. The principles and priorities of Russian foreign “civilized world”) is no longer accepted even as a policy have changed in concert with the evolu- distant goal. Today, “Russia is inclined not only tion toward authoritarianism inside the country completely to reject Western values but even to Russian Outlook guided by Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin has refuse to admit that something like that exists,” steadily repossessed key economic resources and one of the most astute observers of Russian foreign reestablished control of the media, justice, and all policy, Fyodor Lukyanov, wrote in August of this national political institutions. The government year.4 These “values,” another leading Russian and the national media have stoked the sense of expert noted,
    [Show full text]
  • Soviet Intelligence and the Cuban Missile Crisis
    This article was downloaded by: [Harvard College] On: 18 September 2012, At: 12:38 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Intelligence and National Security Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/fint20 Soviet intelligence and the Cuban missile crisis Aleksandr Fursenko a & Timothy Naftali b a Chairman of the Department of History, Russian Academy of Science b Olin Fellow at International Security Studies, Yale University Version of record first published: 02 Jan 2008. To cite this article: Aleksandr Fursenko & Timothy Naftali (1998): Soviet intelligence and the Cuban missile crisis, Intelligence and National Security, 13:3, 64-87 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02684529808432494 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.tandfonline.com/page/ terms-and-conditions This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae, and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand, or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material.
    [Show full text]
  • What Drives Demand for Government-Controlled News in Russia?∗
    What Drives Demand for Government-Controlled News in Russia?∗ Andrey Simonov Justin Rao Columbia University HomeAway, Inc. 8th February 2018 News consumers in many authoritarian countries read government-controlled sources even when independent sources are available. What drives this demand for government-controlled news? We separate out two potential sources of such demand, preferences for pro-government coverage of sen- sitive events and persistent preferences for news outlets. Identification strategy relies on exogenous shifts in the volume of sensitive events over time. Demand estimates in the Russian online news market reveal that an average consumer has a distaste for pro-government ideology but strong persistent preferences for state-owned outlets. The state-owned outlets would have 20.3% higher market share without the pro-government bias in their reporting. ∗Simonov (corresponding author): [email protected]; Rao: [email protected]. Andrey is grateful to his advisors and dissertation committee members Pradeep Chintagunta, Jean-Pierre Dub´e, Matthew Gentzkow and G¨unter Hitsch for their guidance and support. We thank Charles Angelucci, Ruben Enikolopov, Matt Goldman, Elisabeth Honka, Sanjog Misra, Chris Nosko, Miklos Sarvary, Bradley Shapiro, Raluca Ursu, Ali Yurukoglu, participants of the 16th Trans-Atlantic Doctoral Conference, 2016 AMA-Sheth Doctoral Consortium, 2016 Economics of Media and Communications Conference, 2017 Marketing Science Conference and the 15th Media Economics Workshop, seminar participants at the University of Chicago, Stigler Center at Chicago Booth, HKUST, University of Minnesota, University of Rochester, UCSD, Duke, LBS, Columbia, Southern Methodist University, Berkeley, Stanford, CMU, UCLA and University of Southern California for advice and suggestions. All opinions represent our own and not those of our current or past employers.
    [Show full text]
  • Government Control in Online News Markets∗
    Demand for (Un)Biased News: Government Control in Online News Markets∗ Andrey Simonov Justin Rao Columbia University HomeAway, Inc. 9th August 2017 First draft: 25th January 2016 Anecdotal evidence suggests consumers navigate to news outlets that are government controlled (GC) and pro-government biased even in the presence of independent news outlets. Does this imply a demand for pro-government bias in the news? Or do consumers enjoy other aspects of GC news outlets such as quality or brand? To answer these questions, we examine consumers' demand in the Russian online news market. We use publication records of the top 48 online news outlets to characterize the methods of government control in the news and identify the news that is sensitive for the government. We then use temporal variation in the amount of sensitive news and click-level browsing panel data to estimate the demand for news. The average consumer prefers the quality and brand of the GC news outlets but the news coverage with less pro-government bias, and there is a substantial heterogeneity in preferences. In a counterfactual simulation, we show that the GC news outlets would have 16.9% higher market shares in the absence of control and 42.9% lower market shares if their quality was at the level of the independent news outlets. Higher quality of the GC news outlets expands their share of online attention from 21.98% to 33.1%, substantially increasing their media power. ∗Corresponding author: [email protected]. Andrey is grateful to his advisors and dissertation committee members Pradeep Chintagunta, Jean-Pierre Dub´e, Matthew Gentzkow and G¨unter Hitsch for their guidance and support.
    [Show full text]
  • CONTROL? INTERNET CENSORSHIP and SURVEILLANCE in RUSSIA © Pixabay
    TAKING CONTROL? INTERNET CENSORSHIP AND SURVEILLANCE IN RUSSIA © pixabay A digital version of this report with links and references can be found online: www.reporter-ohne-grenzen.de/russiareport A REPORT BY REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS/ NOVEMBER 2019 © pixabay TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface 5 3 1 Overview 6 2 Laws restricting press freedom and freedom of expression 10 Chronology from 2012 to 2019 3 Changes of ownership and dismissals 23 Editorial departments under pressure 4 Courageous and committed 32 The diversity of Russian online media 5 Arbitrary and severe penalties 45 Every user risks prosecution 6 The intelligence service is reading right along 56 The fight against anonymous communication 7 Pressure on internet companies 66 The crucial role of international platforms 8 Recommendations 74 PREFACE Today the internet is thought to be a strategically crucial sector in Russian politics although for a long time those in power in the Kremlin did not recognise its importance. Ten years ago, the virtual space in Russia was still a place where lively debates about problems in society and politics unfolded. In the future, it is 5 planned to be censored and surveilled centrally, according to Russia’s new “sovereign internet law”. The present report traces the development from the first bans on content in 2012 to the present day. It shows how critical editorial teams are put under pressure and how the authorities attempt to silence individual journalists and bloggers. It provides information about new online media that report on societal ills against all odds, and it raises the question about the relevance of international platforms for the freedom of expression in Russia.
    [Show full text]