Kursk tragedy gives Russian media new backbone

Russian TV reporter Arkady Mamontov has helped spearhead coverage of the Kursk disaster

By Douglas Herbert, CNN.com writer

LONDON (CNN) -- The news wires were issuing a flash that Britain's LR5 mini-submarine had begun its long-awaited descent towards a rendezvous with the Kursk, on the Barents seabed 107 metres below.

But from his privileged vantage point aboard the Peter the Great naval vessel, within eyeshot of the rescue operation, Arkady Mamontov knew better. Mamontov, 39, a correspondent for Russia's state-owned RTR television network, raised a brawny arm and pointed out at the choppy Arctic waters.

A camera swivelled and focused on the LR5 -- still immobile on the deck of a rescue freighter -- giving the lie to another false alarm and scoring a point for Russia's swashbuckling free press.

The Kursk catastrophe -- and the public outrage caused by President Vladimir Putin's perceived foot-dragging in its aftermath -- has galvanised Russia's independent media in ways unseen since the heyday of the early years of Boris Yeltsin, observers say.

After months of generally servile coverage of Putin, experts say, the Russian press has executed a swift U-turn against a president whom it accuses of failing the country in a time of need.

Newspaper front pages and television reports are filled with teary testimonials from grief-stricken relatives and friends of the crew, who see Putin's belated response to the crisis as insensitivity at best and criminal indifference at worst.

A banner headline in Novaya Gazeta on Monday reflected the caustic mood: "Putin, it turns out, was overboard in the days of our national tragedy."

"There is really nothing to compare it with," said Masha Gessen, editor of Itogi, a popular independent news weekly. "Possibly the closest thing in terms of the extensive coverage is the start of the first war in Chechnya (in 1994)."

In the past, media coverage has tended to hew to a predictable pattern: a scattering of outspoken, independent media outlets -- led by the newspapers Nezavisimaya Gazeta and Sevodnya and the private TV channel, NTV -- heaped vitriol on Russia's leaders and their style of governance. The dominant state organs, meanwhile, toed a less confrontational line.

Gessen said the media, in this instance, had accurately picked up on the discrepancy between the grim reality of the events unfolding in and around the Barents Sea, and Putin's reaction (or lack of reaction) to them.

Last week, in the days immediately following the sinking, Putin found time to send birthday greetings to a well-known actress while holidaying on the sunny shores of the Black Sea.

Though Putin cut short his vacation to return to Moscow over the weekend, observers say that decision may have been too little, too late and that the damage to his image is already done.

Journalists covering the Kursk tragedy, Gessen said, have paid particularly close attention to the way Putin has worded his official statements -- another break from precedent.

"Most of the time the language is cleaned up," she said. "This time, a lot of the journalists noted how Putin placed his priorities: nuclear safety first, rescue of equipment second, and the crew third."

Roy Allison, director of the Russia and Eurasia programme at think tank Chatham House, in London, said that newspapers that backed Putin in the run-up to his March election as president, had suddenly lost their allegiance.

"Nezavisimaya Gazeta had really been praising Putin through the election, but now has a lot of critical editorials on the grounds that he was not taking account of the human side of the tragedy." Allison believes the coverage reflects the strong emotions surrounding the crisis -- rather than the specific political agendas and ideological biases of the newspapers' owners, a problem in the recent past.

"The main problem is the way in which media sources have been used by the oligarchs (influential businessmen) to press their views forward, their political interests," Allison said.

"This obviously isn't unique to Russia. But it's quite difficult for journalists to be able to express their views in a spirit of inquiry. And it's particularly difficult in matters where the military is concerned."

Yet analysts also warily point out that the very mechanisms that allowed Russia's free press to flourish through the Kursk tragedy, threaten to quash it again once the crisis has passed.

"In a few weeks, this will all be forgotten," said Alexei Pankin, the editor of Sreda, a Moscow-based monthly that covers the free press in Russia, Ukraine and Europe.

Pankin rejects suggestions that the Russian press has suddenly become more assertive. He suggests that most of the wall-to-wall coverage is geared towards raising ratings in the new, commercially-minded Russia.

"The fact that a lot of this is broadcast on television does not mean that it has provoked a lot of reaction," Pankin said. He added: "From what I have watched and noticed, Russians do not expect their politicians to act in the same way as Americans do. It's not something that they would normally expect."

Gessen is also doubtful whether the hard-hitting Kursk coverage will prod lasting changes in Russian policies.

"What happened with the first war in Chechnya was there was a lot of critical coverage and there was an expectation that would have an impact, that the government would somehow react... We might now see a variation of the same thing... but what will happen is there won't be a direct connection between the Kursk tragedy and public support for Putin. It will probably not have long-term consequences for public opinion."

Gessen also predicted a possible backlash against journalists.

"I wish that this would be a watershed event," she said. "I'm afraid that it will result in even less access for journalists."

Allison, of Chatham House, has similar concerns: "One of Putin's responses may well be to try and further persuade the media to follow the official line, which has been happening for the last nine months or so," he said.

"And that he may turn against it even more...He might look more carefully at the way he can influence those who control the media."

Rescue effort abandoned after no survivors found on Russian sub
August 21, 2000
Russian TV reporter goes global on sunken sub story
August 20, 2000
Submarine drama: A no-win proposition for Putin?
August 18, 2000
Kremlin eyes independent media
August 2, 2000

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