Putin Held Hostage

Victor Shenderovich, an award-winning writer, satirist, television and radio host and screenwriter, became famous in 1995 as a screenwriter for the NTV program Kukly (“Puppets”). The program was a satirical political comedy (using large puppets) which parodied Russian political life with plays based on well-known works of literature. In one of the two scripts which were censored by NTV, President Boris Yeltsin was to play the part of Winnie the Pooh, starting off the show with the song, “My head is stuffed with sawdust – but that’s not a big deal.” 

In 1997, Shenderovich became writer and host of Itovo (“In Toto”), also on NTV, a humorous and mordant analysis of the week’s events. 

When NTV, Russia’s pioneering independent television station (owned by exiled oligarch Vladimir Gusinsky), was taken over by the gas monopoly Gazprom, Shenderovich took Itovo to TV6, owned by another oligarch, Boris Berezovsky. After TV-6 was shuttered in 2002, the channel’s team created TVS, and Shenderovich launched a new satirical program, Besplatny syr (“Free Cheese”). 

In 2003, TVS was also closed down, with authorities blaming the action on the channel’s management and a financial crisis. The channel’s journalists, however, along with other media, opined that the government was simply eradicating the last vestige of privately-owned television, because it had been critical of the Kremlin.

Shenderovich is the author of two books that provide his account of the takeover of NTV and the closure of TVS. Today, Victor Shenderovich can be heard on Ekho Moskvy radio, where he writes and hosts Plavleny syrok (“Melted Cheese”), which satirizes the week’s developments. As a writer, Shenderovich also loves to create witty sayings – shendevry (a pun on the word shedevr, “masterpiece”). A few are offered in the sidebar on page 21. As an activist, Shenderovich is co-founder of “Committee 2008: Freedom of Choice,” which will seek to promote fair and free presidential elections in 2008. The committee was launched in January 2004 by several prominent journalists and public personalities. 

When Russian Life considered ways to cover this March’s “done deal” presidential election in Russia, we could think of no more appropriate person to interview than Victor Shenderovich.

Russian Life: What is your prediction for the March presidential election? How much will President Putin win by?

Victor Shenderovich: I am not an astrologist, so I cannot predict the future. But Putin will get over 60% in the first round. The rest is details. 

RL: What will Russia look like in four years – after Putin has served a second presidential term?

VS: It is precisely this question which is the source of the greatest public concern. We see the eradication of a free press, trampling of the opposition, massive breaches of the Law on Elections, and, to put it mildly, selective application of the Rule of Law, plus, finally, mass murder and lawlessness in Chechnya. The further all of this goes, the more Putin becomes a hostage of his own presidency … The president himself is an intelligent and calculating man, and understands this all perfectly well. Which is why there is a high probability that the president and his entourage will try to think up something so that they won’t have to give up power. It could be extension of the presidential term by amending the Constitution or some kind of game with “common space,” (with Lukashenko and Kuchma, for example, who are also not keen on giving up power). Or it could be a repetition of “the Yeltsin option,” with a successor, but with much stricter commitments. Putin himself has broken such commitments and understands perfectly well that the same thing could happen to him.
 

RL: How would you, in a straightforward way, explain to an American audience what has happened in Russia over the last four years, as it relates to freedom of the press and political pluralism?

VS: Straightforwardly? I have no idea. But, in short, there has been an almost complete submission of the media to the Kremlin and a complete destruction of all political opposition. 

RL: And yet Putin enjoys almost the full support of the people. One gets the impression that Russians are immune to liberalism (in the sense of a market economy, political pluralism, civil rights, protection of minorities, etc.)?

VS: As for full support, I would not exaggerate this. Putin’s rating is the rating of populism (“wet” the Chechens, jail the rich) and the rating of fear (people have long understood that Putin is not Yeltsin, who [while in office] could be called a Judas on the public square). When the oil dollars start falling and poverty overcomes fear, then let’s talk again about ratings. As for “immunity to pluralism,” there is no historical habit and no mass perception [in Russia] that liberalism is a precondition for the normal development of society, and not just the whim of a bunch of intellectuals. And yet, look, how far we have traveled toward this perception over the course of the last 15 years!

RL: How then would you describe the nature of Russia’s political system at this moment (or perhaps the country is still in the era of transition)?

VS: I am not a political scientist, but in my opinion we are still living in the post-Soviet era. Which means it is a transitional period. But the real question is: a transition to what? Either we shall, through hardships, plod down the European (in the broad sense of the word) road, or we shall stay in the Third World, as some kind of a Byzantine Malaysia, or an Asian Venezuela.
 
RL: How would you characterize the mass media here today? Is there, or was there ever, a free press in Russia?

VS: A free press existed in Russia; it was crushed between 2000 and 2003. Today there is merely the debris of a free-thinking past – at the margins of radio broadcasting and in a few newspapers. And there is NTV and RenTV, which have the status of [the quasi-dissident] Literaturnaya gazeta of the Soviet era, meaning free-thinking within agreed-upon limits.

RL: Do you foresee a further tightening of the screws – in the media, as well as in arts, business, and so on?

VS: As for the arts, this could happen a bit later. Our opponents cannot imagine any relationship with the opposition except for its suppression. And in business they have not so far demonstrated any skill except state racketeering.

RL: What kind of system of rule is, in your opinion, ideal for Russia?

VS: I am not a proponent of a “special path.” So the answer is: the ideal system of rule for Russia is the same as it is for any other country: honest and intelligent. All the rest is details.

RL: Your programs have had to “change their place of registration” several times in recent years. Can you imagine a situation when there will one day be nowhere else to move? And have you ever considered leaving Russia?

VS: I did consider leaving, but this was long ago. Today, I am needed in Russia more than anywhere else. My life here is exciting and meaningful. But I am not in the habit of making long-term plans. As the saying goes, “God gives us the day; God gives us food.” Including food for thought.

 
RL: Do you consider yourself a part of the community referred to as Rossiyane (“Russians”)?

VS: I will answer with [writer Andrei] Platonov’s words: “Without me, the people would be incomplete.”  RL