Kremlin Seeks to Silence Media, Mogul Says

Boris A. Berezovsky, the powerful tycoon who helped make Vladimir V. Putin the Russian president--only to become his most vocal opponent--claimed Monday that the Kremlin is trying to gain control of all of Russia’s television networks to flood the airwaves with propaganda.

Berezovsky, one of the country’s most unpopular oligarchs, wrote to Putin accusing the Kremlin of using threats and blackmail to wrest away his stake in the national ORT television network. The independent Interfax news agency released the letter.

Berezovsky was once so close to the Kremlin that he was known as a modern-day Rasputin, and he delivered staunchly pro-Kremlin content on the 51% state-owned ORT, which he controls despite a minority holding.

But after years of manipulating media content on ORT to help the Kremlin, Berezovsky had a public falling-out with Putin in June after the president moved to curb the powers of regional governors, and ORT began singing an anti-Kremlin tune.

Berezovsky is a wily and enigmatic figure who is often difficult to read. He is so notorious for his intrigues and manipulation that analysts rarely take his statements at face value.

His latest outburst came just after Putin made clear his anger about media coverage of the Kursk submarine catastrophe, prompting fears among journalists and politicians that the Kremlin is determined to bring Russia’s television networks to heel.

Berezovsky’s letter to Putin said that if he accepts a Kremlin ultimatum to hand over his ORT shares to the state, “television information will come to a stop in Russia to be replaced by television propaganda controlled by your advisors.”

The tycoon said he will give up his ORT stake but stop the Kremlin from seizing control by handing it to a group of journalists and “other representatives of the creative intelligentsia.”

LogoVAZ, a company controlled by Berezovsky, holds 11% of ORT’s shares, and a consortium of banks holds 38%. His daughter, Maria, sits on the board.

The outcome of the struggle for control of ORT remains obscure: Berezovsky did not furnish any names, nor was he available Monday to provide details on his announcement.

There was no official comment from the Kremlin, but others weighed in.

“I find it hard to comment on any of Berezovsky’s statements and actions,” said Oleg Panfilov, director of the Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations. “I usually say this: If it came from an honest person, I would say that this is a very positive step. But I am afraid that Boris Abramovich [Berezovsky] once again invites us to watch a game of his own.”

But both Panfilov and Dmitry Ostalsky, a spokesman for the independent Media-Most group, echoed Berezovsky’s warnings that the media in Russia are coming under increasing pressure from the Kremlin.

And Boris Y. Nemtsov, leader of the Union of Right Forces faction in the Duma, or lower house of parliament, said he has rarely had cause to agree with the tycoon, “but Berezovsky was correct in raising this problem in his letter. If they silence the electronic mass media now, it will mean that nothing good is happening in the country, only the manipulation of public opinion.”

As Berezovsky’s relationship with the Kremlin deteriorated over the summer, he flip-flopped on his plans for ORT. In July, he was ready to transfer his stake in the network to the state. By early August, he had changed his mind.

During the coverage of the Kursk tragedy, state-owned network RTR replaced ORT as the prime source of official information, broadcasting exclusively at the rescue scene from the deck of the Peter the Great navy cruiser. Left out, ORT and the independent NTV aired reports more critical of the authorities.

Putin, mauled by the media for remaining on vacation while the navy’s rescue efforts floundered, lashed out when he addressed families of the 118 dead sailors at the closed military base in Vidyayevo.

As angry relatives shouted questions about why authorities did not seek foreign help sooner, Putin responded with a fierce attack on the networks: “They’re lying! They’re lying! There are people at television today who are screaming more than anybody else and who in the last 10 years have been destroying the very army and the fleet in which people are dying today.

“In a few years they stole a lot of money, and now they’re buying everybody and everything.”

Putin’s vehement tone and language raised new concerns about his commitment to journalistic freedom, which has suffered several setbacks since he became acting president on New Year’s Eve.

In January, Andrei Babitsky, a Russian journalist for the U.S.-funded Radio Liberty, known for covering both sides of the Chechen war, was arrested on charges of fighting on the side of the rebels and was later described by Putin as a traitor.

In June, media mogul Vladimir A. Gusinsky, head of Media-Most, which controls NTV, was arrested and jailed.

Gusinsky was later freed, and charges of embezzling $10 million were dropped. But NTV is involved in negotiations about its debt to the gas giant Gazprom, and questions remain about whether the network will retain its independence.

Panfilov, the media analyst, said all of Russia’s independent media, not just television, are in for hard times.

“The Kremlin doesn’t want them. The Kremlin doesn’t want to be criticized,” he said.

Panfilov said watching the pro-Kremlin state network RTR these days is like taking a trip back to the Brezhnev era, with footage of the president talking in a golden wheat field with local leaders and farmers.

“The Kremlin wants the good-old-style Soviet media, which would show footage of President Putin for hours on end stroking children on the heads when visiting a village school,” he said.

Berezovsky’s letter to Putin said a top Kremlin official had recently given him two weeks to give up his stake in ORT, or he would follow Gusinsky. Berezovsky took the remark as a threat to jail him.

He said the Kremlin official conveyed Putin’s dissatisfaction with ORT’s coverage of the Kursk disaster.

“The president wants to rule ORT himself, your representative told me,” Berezovsky’s letter said.

“The authorities’ use of threats and blackmail to resolve disputes with citizens is unacceptable,” he wrote, saying this showed that the authorities are weak and dangerous for the whole of society.