Dialogue: Putin the boot into freedom - again

The Russians haven't got the hang of democracy yet. In fact, new President Vladimir Putin is moving them back towards autocracy after their brief flirtation with relative freedom.

The problem is that Russians have become accustomed over their whole history to power descending from above rather than welling up from below, and the truth is, most of them seem more secure with that.

But last month, between 300 and 400 well-armed operatives from the Federal Security Bureau (successor to the KGB) swooped on the headquarters and three branch offices of the largest independent media company in Russia. The company owns television and radio stations, the daily newspaper Sergodnya, and a weekly news magazine published in association with the American Newsweek.

Sergodnya supported anti-terrorism action against Chechnyans but opposed the bombing of civilians and published pictures embarrassing to the Kremlin. It has also carried stories about corruption among politicians and state officials.

The secret police rummaged through computer and hard-copy files, looking for evidence of illegal activities by the company's security staff and to identify any sources of the information about corruption. They found nothing. The media company has gone to the courts in which they have some confidence, claiming that the FSB agents acted illegally. They hope to win the battle in the courts but do not expect to win the war against the new President.

"The problem as I understand it is that Mr Putin has black-and-white vision," the editor of Sergodnya, Mikhail Berger, told me in Moscow. "All the media which don't support him are absolute enemies.

"Mikhail Gorbachev's glasnost gave press freedom as long as he could manage it," says Mr Berger. "[Boris] Yeltsin made it absolutely free. We could do anything we liked. But now the mood has changed 100 per cent and the Government wants to use the media for Government purposes."

Mr Berger said Mr Putin was "trying to frighten us, sending us a message."

Although any court can demand journalists reveal sources, media have had a measure of constitutional protection since 1990. Mr Berger, however, expects Mr Putin will change the law.

"I think it's impossible to win when you're fighting political power. It's a question of the price he's prepared to pay. If he suppresses the media he will lose status among world leaders. He does seem to want to be a member of that leader's club. It's our hope that he does. Otherwise he has power enough.

"In the United States, Britain, your country you're defended by public opinion. Here that doesn't help because we've had very little democratic experience. Especially young businessmen - they don't understand that if independent newspapers close, the Government will be able to do anything it wants to business."

Mr Berger claimed that Mr Putin is arrogating power, and this was validated by the English newspaper, the Moscow Times. The newspaper said the President decided to limit the influence of the elected governors of the 89 Russian regions, so had created seven federal districts and appointed envoys, five of them former KGB operatives, to the National Security Council. He had changed the nature of the Upper House which had curbed Mr Yeltsin's power and removed members' immunity from prosecution.

As for Mr Berger? If the axe falls on press freedom, this short, dumpy, volatile and very brave man will be close to where the blade lands, as he well knows. But then the best Russians have never lacked guts.

At the International Pen congress I attended, members of the Russian centre spoke up for a resolution that condemned their Government for actions in Chechnya, and for attacking the media. Among the speakers was Grigory Pasko, a poet, journalist and naval officer arrested in 1997 and charged with treason for articles disclosing that the Russian Navy was dumping nuclear waste into the Sea of Japan.

In jail for 18 months, a three-year suspended sentence now hanging over his head and his passport confiscated, he said Russia was being militarised again, and the security service was becoming more powerful and cynical. He and another Russian at the Congress claimed the Government is recruiting young computer experts to set up a system to intercept e-mails through the monopoly telecommunications system.

A calm 38-year-old of average height, with a swarthy complexion and an unyielding chin, Pasko told the Pen delegates: "Putin is a hypocrite. He claims to believe in freedom of expression but that freedom is determined by the length of the leash. Although I'm not now in jail, I'm being held on a very short leash."

Neither that, nor an uncompromising attack on Russia's war in Chechnya by Nobel Prize winner Gunther Grass, was published in the official press.

But courageous people like Mr Berger and Mr Pasko mean Mr Putin has a fight on his hands, as long as Western leaders and the press give them the support they deserve.