Famous Radio Editor Remains Wary Of Intoxicated Audience, Isolated Politicians

Michael Hedges April 12, 2023 - Follow on Twitter

The ability to adapt remains a media survival skill. Changing with public interest, economics and, indeed, political turmoil marks the difference between those who get along and those who don’t. This chaos challenges all.

Independent media outlets were springing up as the Soviet Union collapsed. Historians tend to concur on the coincidence. Soviet media was deeply controlled by the state but it was large and unwieldy. The occasional difference with government diktat grew into independence, new voices, a popular concept.

Moscow radio station Ekho Moskvy came into being in 1990 as a news/talk channel. Its brand image was cemented by robust coverage on the 1991 coup attempt. Having their hands full at the time, authorities failed to cut-off transmission and, instead, authorized re-broadcasting in several cities. The station was originally owned by the staff but amidst crumbling facilities and grumbling employees an investor-angel appeared - billionaire Vladimir Gusinsky, an ally of then president Boris Yeltsin. A charter was written giving the staff one-third ownership and editorial decision making to the chief editor. Alexei Venediktov, one of the original reporters, assumed that position in 1998. In March last year he was, more or less, put out of a job.

Mr. Venediktov gave an interview to Swiss public broadcaster RTS this week (April 11). In it he illuminated his current undertakings while carefully sidestepping, more or less, contentious issues. After all, he still lives in Moscow. "After the radio was banned, in the Kremlin, I was told: you must understand that we are making war. On your radio, which is listened to by deputies, ministers and even the president, you criticize this policy. And it cannot exist.” A year ago, the Justice Ministry of the Russian Federation added Mr. Venediktov to its list of “foreign agents.”

"War does not change the basis of our profession: we must speak clearly to the listeners, even if in the listeners, there is Putin," he continued. "On our channel, it is said that Putin made a fatal mistake for Russia. It is also said that in any case, Russia has already lost this war on February 24, 2022, because we will return more weakened.”

After Ekho Moskvy was officially closed, assets seized, several former staff members relocated to Berlin, Germany and introduced a similar channel on which Mr. Venediktov occasionally appears remotely. "I always say that Ekho Moskvy is a mirror of society,” he noted. “We broke this mirror, but there is debris, like our YouTube channel.”

He was explicit in his view of Russian people supporting the aggression in Ukraine, saying they are “intoxicated” and “cannot accept to be on the side of the executioners.” But, he also sees the Russian people as victims. "So you have to look for the language to talk with them. If you call everyone a barbarian, how could the population receive the message?”

As for Russian Federation president Vladimir V. Putin, Mr. Venediktov faults conspicuous isolation. "He believes in the papers his generals sign, but he doesn't believe in radio, television or ordinary people. He still thinks that there are interests behind it, that people have been paid to say that. For this reason, there are very few people who can enter his office every day. And of course, these people, in an authoritarian regime, want their leader to be very happy with the content of what they have to say.” The result of his unhappiness, observed Mr. Venediktov, is fatal.

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