#7
RFE/RL Russian Political Weekly
Vol. 1, No. 33, 31 December 2001
BEHIND THE SCENES OF PUTIN'S TELEPHONE CHAT. On 24 December, Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared on ORT and RTR television networks, fielding questions submitted by telephone and the Internet from citizens all over Russia. The Kremlin had opened up a free telephone hotline on 19 December which took about 2,000 calls within a few hours, and the call center remained open until the end of the broadcast on 24 December. According to RFE/RL's Moscow bureau, Putin answered some 47 of the several hundred thousand questions submitted. Although the broadcast was live, neither Putin nor the broadcaster appeared ruffled, a feat which RFE/RL's correspondents suggested might be attributable to the fact that the show was perhaps not as completely spontaneous as it appeared.
RFE/RL's Vladivostok correspondent, Marina Loboda, reported on 24 December that all participants in the telelink were gathered in the city's main square an hour before the beginning of the broadcast. And according to local organizers of the event, everything was pre- programmed and rehearsed twice. The questions to be submitted to Putin were sent from Moscow, and Vladivostok residents then asked them. One local journalism student asked Putin to explain housing reform; that the well-to-do student was so keenly interested in such a topic came as a surprise to some of his acquaintances. One local newspaper journalist who wanted to ask Putin about official corruption and whether the Far East needed to be part of Russia was unable to reach an open microphone, as were many other would-be questioners, including some local legislators who arrived after those chosen to ask questions had already been gathered.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, in St. Petersburg, RFE/RL correspondent Viktor Rezunkov noted that the broadcast from Isaakievskii square attracted about 100 locals. However, according to observers, only a group of about six were actually allowed to ask questions, which had already been discussed with the local RTR correspondent, Sergei Pashkov. Local policemen watched over the proceedings so that no person who was not pre-screened could shove through to reach Pashkov. In Rostov-na-Donu, RFE/RL correspondent Sergei Sleptsov reported that about 40 people -- most of them students from nearby institutes and universities -- gathered outside a local theater. They were joined by an equal number of men in law- enforcement uniforms.
Commenting on the regional dispatches, media analyst for RFE/RL's Moscow bureau Anna Kachkaeva noted that the complexity of such a broadcast required some advanced engineering and pre-screening of questions, and the resulting program came off without a hitch. There were no awkward moments and no disruption of telephone or TV links. She also observed that the total cost of the production was probably considerable. The telelinks to the 10 cities alone must have cost $50,000-70,000. Additional expenses were incurred by the purchase of special equipment for Ostankino and the creation of a special website, along with wages for the hundreds of technical workers and telephone operators.
But presumably it was all money well spent, since it contributes to the impression that Russia is now a democracy -- one in which Russian citizens can simply trot down to their local square and get answers from their head of state about what's really bothering them. That the event was not spontaneous should simply be expected. Writing in "Obshchaya gazeta" (no. 51), analyst Dmitrii Furman argues that "battles and events" are disappearing from public politics in Russia. And what the current regime finds most disturbing is "anything independent and spontaneous" -- "regardless of whether it is dangerous or not." Furman notes that is why representatives of nongovernmental organizations were "summoned for the Civic Forum," an event which he said "marks the beginning of the formalization of that sphere."
Likewise, according to Furman, "the TV-6 network is not dangerous either, but it is uncontrollable." And, he continues, "when uncontrollability and spontaneity are to be driven out of the sphere of public politics, they have to be driven out of public politics as well." Writing in "The Moscow Times" on 18 December, commentator Aleksei Pankin echoed Furman's comment, noting that programs such as "Vremena" and "Segodnya" on ORT and NTV, respectively, are currently more critical than TV-6. But TV-6 poses a threat nonetheless, because it could become critical in the future: "Everyone understands that it is a time bomb that [chief shareholder Boris] Berezovsky will detonate when the time is right," he noted. And that is apparently intolerable for the Kremlin. In the meantime, Russia's television- viewing public may no longer see TV-6 in the future, but Russians can look forward to another television chat with Putin next year, since the nationwide call-in show is expected to become an annual event.
(Julie A. Corwin)
Next Article