Jun 25, 2015 3 min read

Back in the early 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the state propaganda machine was no more and independent media blossomed. Then came Vladimir Putin, and now that propaganda machine is running at full throttle.

As the Atlantic magazine reported last April: “Putin’s concept of the media is far from the First Amendment. For him, it’s a simple transactional equation: Whoever owns the media controls what it says.”

From his first days as president of Russia, Putin moved quickly to dominate the media there, putting not only state media but privately owned broadcast networks under the Kremlin’s influence. Last October, some of the few remaining independent voices left in Russia were silenced when foreign ownership of media outlets was banned.

That the Russian government owns most major newspapers and television networks has been well publicized, but lesser known is the evaporation of independent media locally. Bureaucrats at the state and city level have realized that the best way to protect their interests, conceal their misdeeds and avoid public scrutiny is to control what is reported in print and on television. We’ve learned of a good example of this from correspondence with journalist Mikhail Zelenchukov, formerly a reporter for the Observer-Reporter’s sister newspaper, The Kuznetsk Worker, in Novokuznetsk, Russia.

Zelenchukov, who has visited Washington and Greene counties twice, is currently working as an investigative reporter for an independent online newspaper. His job is very much in jeopardy.

“In May, I was doing investigative journalism. After the publication of my article, the vice mayor and three of his subordinates lost their jobs,” Zelenchukov wrote in an email earlier this week.

The city officials were responsible for replacing water pipes. Instead of laying all new pipes underground, they repainted half the old pipes and replaced them. They took in 5 million rubles from the scheme. “Apparently, the officials are going to prison for fraud. My article was reprinted by other journalists, and it was read by the mayor and the governor,” Zelenchukov wrote.

That’s only caused the reporter problems, however. The Kemorovo state government has already acquired half the interest in the website. “We are confident that by the end of the year we will close and we will lose our jobs. After that I can’t find a journalism job in my area because I berated officials.”

Zelenchukov, 45, faces other woes, too. He is suffering from cancer, diabetes and heart disease. He lives in a city choked by air pollution, where life expectancy for men is far below the Russian average of 64 years.

In Russia, investigative journalism is being systematically eradicated by the state. In this country, it is disappearing as well, not strangled by government but by economics. Newspapers and the big networks, pressured by the Internet and diversification, can no longer afford the high costs and low returns of watchdog reporting. And the public’s insatiable appetite for entertainment has not helped.

Russia should remind us just how important a free and independent press is, no matter how intrusive and annoying it can be.