His editor, Galina Timchenko, has already been sacked, and Azar
says her departure was his fault, for interviewing a leader of
Ukraine's right-wing paramilitary group Right Sector for their
Lenta.ru website.
Lenta.ru's journalists say Timchenko's sacking, after 10 years
running one of a handful of media organizations offering an
alternative to state-controlled outlets, shows President Vladimir
Putin is tightening his grip over news.
As the crisis in Ukraine escalates, that news has taken on shades of
Soviet-era propaganda, with anchors and reporters peppering their
reports with references to what they say was the cooperation of some
Ukrainians with the Nazis in World War II.
"I think I have tried objectively to show both sides in Ukraine but
when the Russian troops went into Crimea — unofficially of course,
but we know they are there — the trend was for official propaganda," Azar said.
"Any other opinion and you are treated as if you are the enemy," he
said by telephone from the western Ukrainian city of Lviv where he
is reporting.
In the freewheeling 1990s, Russian media took on everyone and
everything including the Kremlin. Increasingly in the 14 years Putin
has been in power, almost all toe the official line.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied there was any campaign to
silence critical media. "Those are standard accusations which we are
fed up of hearing," he said.
Azar's interview with Right Sector leader Andriy Tarasenko was
published on Monday. By Wednesday morning, Russia's
telecommunications watchdog had warned Lenta that Russia had banned
publication of "extremist" material.
By Wednesday evening, Timchenko had been told by billionaire
Alexander Mamut, the owner of Lenta's parent company,
Afisha-Rambler-SUP, that she had been replaced.
More than 80 of Lenta's staff signed a letter saying her dismissal
was a result of Kremlin pressure, something Peskov said was
impossible.
"Lenta.ru is a private publication. Decisions are made by its owner,
and therefore it is absolutely unacceptable to blame anything on the
Kremlin here," he said.
Tarasenko and other Right Sector leaders deny they are
"neo-fascists" as Moscow calls them, but just interviewing them was
enough to get Lenta into trouble.
"There was nothing scary in the interview. In fact, it probably
showed in fact that they were fascists," Azar said, referring to
Moscow's position that "extremists and fascists" are leading events
in Ukraine, where a new pro-Western government has formed after
ousting its pro-Russian predecessor.
Azar, like many other Russian journalists, is considering seeking
work elsewhere. Perhaps Ukraine would be a better bet, he says,
calling what happened to Lenta a second wave of attacks on the media
since last year.
WORLD WAR II Most journalists in Russia have become used to a merry-go-round of
editors since Putin returned to power for his third stint as
president less than two years ago.
Some do not mind. Ukraine has become a rallying cry for many
Russians who agree with Putin that attempts to separate what the
president calls the "brotherly nations" should be stopped.
They say "extremists" are dictating events in Kiev and are bent on
harming Russian speakers in the southern Crimea region and eastern
Ukraine.
The seizure of Crimea by Russian forces — who Putin says are local
forces of self defence — has been welcomed by many Russians,
propelling the president's approval ratings to over 70 percent for
the first time in three years.
The West, which has ridiculed Putin's denial, is portrayed as a
hypocritical backer of the extremists, unable to appreciate the
close bonds between Russia and Ukraine formed by the extreme
suffering of the Soviets under the Nazis.
As Russian officials start to use Soviet-era speech to define a
relationship at lows not seen since the Cold War, Russian
commentators have accentuated the gulf in understanding.
"The West will never understand us and do you know why?" asked
morning radio host Vladimir Solovyov. "Because of the Second World
War."
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While some embrace the new war-like tone, others working in
state-owned media companies find it hard to stomach. "It's pure,
simple and utter lies they're telling about the so-called
provocations against Russians in eastern Ukraine," said a
disillusioned employee at a state television company who said the
boss had hammered home editorial policy in a letter.
PLIANT MEDIA
Much of the time, bosses do not need to step in, and the Kremlin
does not need to issue orders at its weekly meetings with Russian
media editors.
Media owners are keenly aware of changes in the mood of the
authorities and their viewers.
"Maybe (Lenta owner) Mamut was not responding at all to Kremlin
opinion, or to phone calls from the presidential administration.
Maybe he is focused on ratings, on the opinions of readers, because
the public mood is clear," said Andrei Fefelov, chief editor of
Internet television channel Dyen (Day).
Mamut, who has a fortune of $2.3 billion according to Forbes
magazine, could not be reached for comment.
With only Lenta and online newspaper Gazeta.ru, Mamut's media
interests are tiny compared with the market's biggest tycoon, Yuri
Kovalchuk, a close friend of Putin. He indirectly controls a stake
in Russia's biggest media holding, Gazprom Media, and a stake in
National Media Group.
But even media under the official thumb, like the main state news
agency, is not immune to the drive for absolute control.
Putin dissolved RIA late last year, and is replacing it with a new
organization, headed by Dmitry Kiselyov, who once caused outrage by
saying the organs of homosexuals should not be used in transplants
and who says the new group will restore "a fair attitude towards
Russia as an important country in the world".
Remaining independent media are seen as fair game. Dozhd, a
television and Internet channel, was taken off the air by providers
nationwide earlier this year in what its head said was censorship.
Pavel Durov, founder of Russia's biggest social network Vkontakte,
said in January he had sold his stake to an ally of tycoon Alisher
Usmanov, sealing the Kremlin ally's domination of the site, where
anti-Putin protests were advertised in 2011.
Timchenko's sacking was similar to the removal of Maxim Kovalsky as
editor of Kommersant-Vlast news magazine in December 2011 after the
weekly printed a photograph featuring an obscene message addressed
to Putin as part of extensive reports on alleged fraud in an
election won by the ruling party.
It is part of a pattern since Putin came to power in 2000, when he
ousted the old oligarch-owners in favor of his allies.
"Today many people are talking about maybe having to change
profession, that quality journalism is not needed in this country,
where there is only propaganda," Marat Gelman, a gallery owner who
helped found Lenta, told Ekho Moskvy radio.
"There really is this feeling that we are in a military situation.
Yes, really, when a country is at war, then criticism is not
allowed."
(Additional reporting by Maria Tsvetkova and Alexei Anishchuck;
editing by Timothy Heritage and Philippa Fletcher)
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