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Ann Cooper discusses threats to free press in Russia and elsewhere with host Mishal Husain.
Watch the video
or read the transcript.
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Is Russia returning to a Soviet-era repression of the media?
Read this week's briefing (below) to find out what Russians think about democracy and freedom of the press.
What Russians Think and Want
by Richard Pipes
July 5, 2004
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When the Communists were in power, we had no way of knowing what ordinary Russians thought because all the media, without exception, were controlled by the Communist Party and expressed its interests. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the situation in this respect has undergone drastic change. Russians have adopted with great enthusiasm western methods of public opinion polling and we now have reliable information about their thoughts and wants on almost every subject. The leading polling organization is the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion, directed by Iurii Levada. The results from this and other such institutes are regularly reported in their own publications as well as in the popular daily, IZVESTIA. The information provided below dates from 1999-2004.
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| 1985 |
Mikhail Gorbachev promises openness ("glastnost") and restructuring ("perestroika").
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| 1988 |
The Communist Party agrees to allow a private sector.
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| 1989 |
Russia holds its first openly contested election for parliament.
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| 1990 |
The Communist Party votes to end the one-party system.
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| 1991 |
Gorbachev resigns as the Soviet Union breaks up.
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Unfortunately, the results of these polls are not encouraging.They indicate a preference for order over freedom, suspicion of democracy and the free market, and nostalgia for the Soviet Union. Russians emerge as a people who mistrust everyone except their closest family and friends, as individuals who, in the words of one opinion survey, live in "trenches" feeling surrounded on all sides by enemies.
Such attitudes have at least three causes. One is the age-old tradition of autocratic government which gave Russian citizens no voice in affairs of state and forced them to rely on their own efforts to survive in a harsh climatic environment. Another is the disappointment which Russians have experienced when the expectations they had of democracy and capitalism after the collapse of communism did not immediately bring them stability and prosperity. And the third are the actions of the country's powerful president, Vladimir Putin, who has contempt for democratic procedures and is reverting Russia to a one-party state, promoting political apathy.
As a consequence of these factors, today's Russians view democracy as a fraud: 78 percent of respondents in a 2003 survey said that democracy is a facade concealing a regime in which real power is exercised by rich and powerful cliques. Only 22 percent express a preference for democracy, whereas 53 percent positively dislike it. 52 percent believe multiparty elections do more harm than good. Altogether Russians feel they have no influence over government, whether national or local, and hence are quite prepared to live under a one-party regime.
They attach little importance to liberties. Only one in ten Russians would be unwilling to surrender the freedom of speech, press, or movement in exchange for "order" or "stability." A recent poll brought out the stunning fact that fully three-quarters of Russians want the restoration of censorship on the mass media. The reason seems to be that they are disturbed by unsettling news as well as by the impropriety of some of the spectacles presented on television.
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Should journalists put their lives on the line to report on crime and corruption in Russia?
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 Join the Discussion
Debate the issues presented in this show in our online forum!
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Inside This Episode
 Peek into the lives of ordinary Russians in our Photo Essay.
Read articles on organized crime by the journalists who report it in Togliatti Uncovered.
Learn about press freedom in Russia and around the world in the Interactive Map.
The body of murdered newspaper editor Alexei Sidorov on the doorstep of his apartment building
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