Newsroom Vacates After Spate Of Firings

Michael Hedges May 27, 2019 Follow on Twitter

Within Russia’s quite restricted media sphere, daily business newspaper Kommersant has been an occasional standout. The vast majority of Russian news media touts the government line, Kommersant included. Its reputation was built of bringing Russian business and politics into reasonably clear view with solid journalistic light. Something is happening.

Last Monday (May 20) eleven reporters and editors working the political desk walked out, reported news portal Medusa (May 21). Some reports said they were “escorted” out. Two reporters - Ivan (Vanya) Safonov and Maxim Ivanov - were fired for “violating editorial standards,” said Kommersant director Vladimir Zhelonkin.

The flurry of departures followed a report by Mr. Safonov, Mr. Ivanov and three others in Kommersant (April 17) about the imminent departure of Valentina Matviyenko, speaker of the upper house (Federal Assembly) of the Russian parliament and governor of St. Petersburg, in favor of Sergei Naryshkin, current director of the Foreign Intelligence Service. Sources for the report were quoted anonymously and Mr. Safonov and Mr. Ivanov were “pressured” to reveal their identities, said RFE/RL (May 23). A rumor emerged in the UK daily Independent (September 6, 2018) that Mrs Matviyenko might consider running for a higher political office.

Some said the firings were ordered by owner Alisher Usmanov. His spokesperson told Vedomosti (May 20) he learned of the firings in media reports and "does not interfere in editorial policy and does not make decisions regarding the firing or hiring of journalists.” Mr. Usmanov, a mining industry billionaire, acquired Kommersant in 2006 from Georgian auto-import tycoon Badri Patarkatsishvili who earlier shared ownership of Kommersant with Boris Berezovsky. Both Mr. Patarkatsishvili and Mr. Berezovsky died, separately, of unclear circumstances in London. (See more about media in the Russian Federation here)

In March Kommersant’s St. Petersburg reporter Maria Karpenko was fired, ostensibly, for participating in the Rotunda local news social media channel. She had published on Rotunda, which operates as a journalists collective in St. Petersburg, a complaint about policies of acting governor Alexander Beglov restricting journalists’ access. Mr. Zhelonkin told her, she said, this was “activism incompatible with the status of a journalist.”

The dismissals of Mr. Safonov and Mr. Ivanov was "entirely groundless and disastrous for our newsroom,” wrote departing editors and reporters in a joint statement posted on social media. "Kommersant's staff feels an obligation to notify our readers that Kommersant will, for an indefinite period, be unable to inform them about Russian politics. The publication's readers, partners, and advertisers will be deprived of high-quality, unbiased coverage of numerous domestic political events, and we do not know for how long this situation will persist."

Whatever happened, it got official attention. Government spokesperson Dmitry Peskov referred to Mr. Safonov as “one of the most talented and professional journalists we now,” in a statement. He also said the decision was “exclusively a corporate decision,” quoted by medusa.ru (May 21).

“I think there’s more involved here,” said Gleb Cherkasov, a deputy editor who joined the staff walkout, quoted by RFE/RL (May 23). "The general situation for the media is miserable. Producing propaganda is simple, but acquiring and confirming information is getting more and more difficult."

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