#19
BBC Monitoring
Chechen web site says Russian journalists back war to
please Kremlin
Source: Chechenpress web site, Tbilisi, in Russian 29 Dec 01
29 December, Chechenpress state news agency correspondent L. Vakhidova: One reaches the conclusion from reading and analysing the Russian press that an overwhelming majority of Russian journalists are in favour of the military actions in Chechnya continuing. If during the previous war there were many objective, honourable and decent Russian journalists, since the new Russian president, [Vladimir] Putin crushed all Russia's information structures beneath the FSB [Federal Security Service], no opponents of the Russo-Chechen war now remain. Russian and Chechen parents suffer as a result of the criminally indifferent position adopted by Russian journalists as they lose their sons in this senseless war. Everyone knows what a big role propaganda plays in the world today. Also public opinion among Russians depends on how objectively this propaganda describes the military actions in Chechnya.
To be fair, I should say that Russian media like Novaya Gazeta, Gazeta-ru, NTV-ru and Kommersant periodically publish anti-war articles, in which the authors tell their readers about the cruelty of Russian soldiers. [Anna] Politkovskaya particularly impresses with her uncompromising, anti-war articles. Unlike the majority of her colleagues, she is not infected with the virus of chauvinism, which allows her to objectively show the cruel face of war. The article "Armoured mud", written by this journalist, which appeared in the last edition of Novaya Gazeta, openly accused Russian soldiers of carrying out extra-judicial executions, systematic robbery and mass looting.
Summing up all this, I would like to say that the continuation of the Russo-Chechen war, and consequently of the brutality of the Russian soldiers, will sooner or later also affect members of the families of these Russian journalists, who today support this criminal war to please the Kremlin.
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