Putin Gives Word to Gorbachev on Upholding Free Press; Critics Not Swayed

A week after denouncing the Kremlin for using strong-arm tactics to curb Russia’s independent media, former Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev said President Vladimir V. Putin gave his personal pledge Tuesday that freedom of speech will be protected.

“The president clearly stood by his position--and these were not mere words or games--that he is committed to the principle of a free press,” Gorbachev told reporters after meeting with Putin.

Gorbachev’s remarks came just a week after he accused government officials of using “crude state blackmail” to try to wrest control of the country’s only independently owned television network, NTV, from its oligarch owner, Vladimir A. Gusinsky.

Putin insisted that he was unaware, Gorbachev said, of the legal machinations around NTV and its parent company, Media-Most, including a secret deal signed by the government’s media minister that Putin termed “unacceptable behavior.”

The Kremlin meeting was Putin’s second in a week with moral authorities of the Soviet period, part of an apparent campaign to gain their public blessing and deflect criticism of efforts to rein in tough media coverage of his regime.

The first meeting took place last Wednesday with former dissident Alexander I. Solzhenitsyn, now an ardent and controversial nationalist, who praised Putin’s “quick mind and ingenuity” and said the president has “absolutely no thirst for personal power.”

Analysts said the meetings permitted Putin to repeat generalized pledges to protect freedom while distancing himself from lower-ranking officials who are exerting pressure on the media.

“Putin proved once again that he must have been a good spy and a great recruiter,” said analyst Andrei A. Piontkovsky, director of the Independent Institute for Strategic Studies in Moscow. “In a matter of two weeks, he publicly and brilliantly recruited two great living political symbols of Russia--Solzhenitsyn and Gorbachev--and made them work for the benefit of the Kremlin.”

Media-Most is embroiled in a nasty dispute with the state-owned gas monopoly, Gazprom, which owns a minority stake in the company. Media-Most has been unable to pay $473 million in debts that Gazprom guaranteed.

Gusinsky has accused the Kremlin of using Gazprom to call in the debt in an effort to gain a controlling stake in the company. After prosecutors arrested him on fraud charges, the mogul signed a deal in July that would turn over shares of Media-Most to Gazprom in payment of the debt.

The deal also included a separate, secret protocol under which the government agreed to drop the charges against Gusinsky and permit him to leave the country. The protocol was signed by Mikhail Y. Lesin, the media minister, who was called to the Kremlin on Saturday to defend his decision. Gusinsky now says he considers the deal null and void because he signed it under duress.

The scandal bolsters complaints that Putin is trying to gain greater control over the press and television.

“Putin talks to liberals about economic reform and basic freedoms, whereas to hard-liners he talks in the language of superpower status and patriotism,” said Igor M. Klyamkin, director of the Moscow-based Institute of Sociological Analysis. “The two meetings with Gorbachev and Solzhenitsyn fit this strategy very neatly and are really impeccable PR stunts.”