Opinions split over thaw in Russia politics

With anti-Kremlin protests set to resume on Saturday, there are signs of a thaw in Russia’s repressive political climate, although opinions differ whether this is due to a change in government tactics or loosening control over the apparatus.

Last week, an upmarket restaurant in an elite Moscow neighbourhood screened a previously banned documentary, “The Assassination of Russia”, about the 1999 apartment bombings in Russian cities which sparked the second invasion of Chechnya.

The film, financed by oligarch Boris Berezovsky, an enemy of prime minister Vladimir Putin, accuses Russia’s secret services of complicity in the attacks.

“I cannot imagine being given permission for this a year ago,” said Vadim Korovin, the film’s distributor, who said he had obtained permission from the Ministry of Culture to show the film in a number of art house theatres in Moscow.

“It is a result of the political turbulence – the bureaucracy is paralysed, Mr Korovin said. “They feel if they prohibit this, they will contribute even more to the public anger.”

Under Mr Putin’s decade-long authoritarian rule, media freedoms have been sharply curtailed. Even seeing an opponent of the Kremlin on television has become a rare and much discussed occurrence.

Meanwhile, the future of Russia’s protest movement hangs in the balance as the third in a series of major demonstrations is planned for Saturday amid bitterly cold temperatures forecast at -20 Celsius. The demonstration will be an important gauge of the anti-Kremlin mood, coming nearly six weeks after a protest on December 24 which drew up to 100,000.

“I think there will be as many as the last one, if not more,” said Vladimir Pribylovsky, a political scientist. “Minus 20 degrees is not scary for a Russian.”

Russian TV viewers, long accustomed to boring, government-approved fare on the nightly news, got a surprise on Sunday when protest leaders Boris Nemtsov and Vladimir Ryzhkov were interviewed on separate state-run channels.

“The information blockade has been broken,” cheered Alexander Ryklin, chief editor of the online opinion website Daily Journal. “The obvious changes in the leading TV channels’ information policy attest primarily to the fact that any changes are possible in Russia today, as long as there is serious pressure from civil society.”

Mr Nemtsov said on his blog that it was the first time in five years that he had been shown on state TV. However, he attributed the fact not to a political thaw but to the regime’s desire to “show an imitation of free speech”. He claimed the broadcast had been selectively edited, excluding his accusations that certain Russian businessmen had greatly benefited from their association with Mr Putin.

Mr Pribylovsky pointed out, however, that red lines still do exist – it is still forbidden to show Alexei Navalny, the most popular protest leader, on state television, he said. “They are still scared of Navalny. They still have boundaries.”