If You Hear Something, Look In The Opposite Direction

Michael Hedges June 11, 2019 - Follow on Twitter

Consumers of business and financial news are very demanding of their media sources. Business, of course, thrives on information. Some of this is arcane, business language what it is, and some trivial, adoring interviews with business leaders a staple. But, generally, business and financial press steers clear of fabrication. They also prefer not to mention corruption.

Vedomosti, Kommersant and RCB are Russian business and finance oriented publications. The three well-known newspapers, and their online editions, on Monday (June 10) published nearly identical front page editorials critical of the arrest and incarceration of news portal Medusa investigative reporter Ivan Golunov. The editorial was titled “I Am/We Are Ivan Golunov”. Russian media watchers, almost universally, called the simultaneous publication “unprecedented.”

On his way to meet a source last Thursday (June 6) Mr. Golunov was, instead, by police officers. Recreational drugs were found, said police officers, in his backpack and apartment. Busted, he was, charged with serious drug offences and taken to jail. For half a day nobody knew he had been taken away. At an arraignment, police officers showed photos they said were taken inside the apartment showing what appeared to be a drug lab. On examination, they admitted “an error” and Mr. Golunov was remanded for sixty days under “house arrest.”

Evidence reported by authorities so far leave “big doubts,” said the editors. “We do not consider the evidence presented by the investigation into the guilt of Ivan Golunov convincing, and the circumstances of his arrest cause great doubts that the law was not followed during the investigative actions. Golunov was examined by an ambulance team that determined he had a concussion, a hematoma and potentially broken ribs. We demand observance of the law by all and for all.”

The three business newspapers are anything but critics of the established order. Each are owned by billionaires and the well-connected. All have shed foreign partners over the recent few years. Kommersant is owned by Alisher Usmanov. After two reporters were fired last month, the entire political desk walked out with Kommersant’s editor saying they would no longer cover politics.

RosBusinessConsulting, publisher of RBC, is principally controlled by flamboyant energy billionaire Grigoriy Beryozkin, who took control from Mikhail Prokhorov’s Onexnim Group in 2017. RBC had become a “toxic asset” for publishing the Panama Papers, said former editor Yelizaveta Osetinskaya, who departed Russia after the transfer, quoted by Reuters (June 16, 2017). Vedomosti is owned by Demyan Kudryavtsev, himself recently afoul of the Russian Interior Ministry and, reported Novaya Gazeta (April 9), in negotiations with Arabat Capital principal Alexei Golubovich to take over the newspaper.

By late Monday afternoon Moscow kiosks had no copies of the three newspapers. Perhaps they were sold-out or something else. A march in Moscow has been called for Wednesday (June 12), participants asked to carry copies of the newspapers, “unauthorized” as it coincides with Russian National Day. A government spokesperson said it would create “an obstacle to a festive atmosphere.” The Russian Journalist’s Union is seeking permissions for further demonstrations on June 23rd.

Mr. Golunov has been a free-lance investigative reporter working in Moscow for Russian-language news portal Medusa for three years. Well-known and respected within Russian journalistic circles, much less so among the broader Russian public, he previously worked for Vedomosti, RBC, the magazine Snob and TV channel TV Dozhd (TV Rain). He is known as diligent and detail-oriented in chasing corruption ranging from the dodgy dealings of neo-Nazis in the funeral home business to locating the humble abode - worth US$50 million - of former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych. Medusa has made archives of Mr. Golunov’s investigations available to all publishers under a Creative Commons License.

In a sign of concerns at the highest level of the Russian government late Monday the investigation of Mr. Golunov was transferred from the Moscow Interior Affairs Ministry office to the State Investigative Committee, reported Vedomosti (June 10), though that transfer has been “technically” disputed. Earlier the case had been bounced from the Moscow City Police Department to the Ministry of Internal Affairs “for the purpose of an objective and comprehensive investigation,” said a Moscow Police Department spokesperson. Government spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said “mistakes may have been made,” in a statement.

Following the dramatic newspaper publication, state-run media appeared to join with government-critical media. “If there were drugs and there is undeniable evidence, then they need to be presented,” said government-friendly TV anchor Irada Zeinalova on NTV (June 10). “But if they were not there, then it is necessary to present those who provoked a wild situation and also punish them.”

“Very, very, VERY many questions,” wrote notorious Russia Today (RT) chief editor Margarita Simonyan. “The government must answer all of the public’s questions on this arrest.” RT, then, breathlessly, compared Mr. Golunov with Julian Assange.

Old Moscow hands have a saying: If you hear something, look in the opposite direction. Late Tuesday afternoon (June 11) a plethora of sources (Medusa, OCCRP, BBC et.al.) reported that all charges against Ivan Golunov have been dropped. Earlier in the day President Vladimir V. Putin “accepted” objections to the charges presented by ombudsman Tatiana Moskalkova, said RAI Novosti (June 11). Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev made the announcement that Mr. Golunov is to be released from house arrest, reported news agency Interfax (June 11), and that police officers involved have been “suspended,” some say arrested. And, too, he has asked President Putin to fire two Moscow police generals. "I believe that the rights of every citizen, regardless of their profession, must be protected,” he said.

See UPDATE here...

• Prosecutor apologizes to reporter falsely charged, cops busted - May 29, 2021
  "positions of authority"

See also...

• Hot Topics - Investigative Reporting

• Hot Topics - Media In Russia