[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 78 (Tuesday, June 20, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5452-S5454]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 ARREST OF VLADIMIR GUSINSKY IN RUSSIA

  Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I rise today to express my deep concern 
about the recent arrest in Russia of Vladimir Gusinsky and its negative 
impact on press freedom and democracy under the leadership of President 
Putin.
  Mr. Gusinsky runs Media Most, a major conglomerate of Russian media 
organizations, including NTV, Russia's only television network not 
under state control. Media Most is a relatively independent force in 
Russian news reporting, and its outlets have offered hard-hitting, 
often critical accounts of Russia's brutal campaign in

[[Page S5453]]

Chechnya, as well as reports on alleged Government corruption. Besides 
being an important media and business executive, Mr. Gusinsky is a also 
a leading figure in the Russian Jewish community, serving as President 
of the Russian Jewish Congress.
  On May 11, just days after President Putin's inauguration, Russian 
federal agents in a major show of force raided several of Media Most's 
corporate offices, raising immediate concerns about the direction of 
press freedom in the new government. These concerns intensified on 
Tuesday June 13 when a Russian prosecutor called Mr. Gusinsky in for 
questioning, and then arrested him on suspicion of embezzling millions 
of dollars worth of federal property. On June 16, Mr. Gusinsky was 
released from prison after the prosecutor formally charged him with 
embezzlement.
  It is very difficult for anyone to address fully the specifics of 
such charges, and the Russian government's case against Mr. Gusinsky, 
when so little information has been made available by the Russian 
government. However, the circumstances of the case raise serious 
concerns about the initial direction of press freedom and democracy 
under President Putin. As one of the opening acts of the new 
Administration, the government chose to carry out a heavy-handed, much 
publicized raid on an organization led by high profile Government 
critic. It chose to arrest the leader of an organization, Media Most, 
that is one of the few outlets of independent news about controversial 
Russian government policies. The fact that this arrest took place while 
President Putin was traveling abroad, and that he publicly speculated 
that the arrest might have been excessive, serves to make the situation 
and the Government's policy even more confusing and unsettling. 
Moreover, this case in not occurring in a vacuum. After President 
Putin's election, but before his inauguration, there were disturbing 
signs of government hostility toward Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 
evident in the harassment of RFE/RL correspondent Andrei Babitsky.
  I am encouraged to see that prominent Russians have been speaking out 
about the arrest of Mr. Gusinsky, and that our Government is signaling 
its concern too. I echo the New York Times editorial on June 15 that 
this is ``A Chilling Prosecution in Moscow.'' I would ask unanimous 
consent that this piece, as well as similar editorials from the June 15 
editions of the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal, be printed 
in full in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                [From The New York Times, June 15, 2000]

                    A Chilling Prosecution in Moscow

       While President Vladimir Putin is traveling through Europe 
     this week extolling the virtues of Russian democracy, his 
     colleagues in the Kremlin have been acting like Stalinists. 
     The arrest and detention of Vladimir Gusinsky, the owner of 
     media properties that have carried critical coverage of the 
     government, is an assault against the principle of a free 
     press. Whatever the merits of the alleged embezzlement case 
     against Mr. Gusinsky, there was no need to haul him off to 
     prison, an action that cannot help but stir fear in a nation 
     all too familiar with the arbitrary exercise of state power.
       If the rule of law prevailed in Russia, and Mr. Gusinsky 
     could count on a presumption of innocence, quick release on 
     bail and a fair trial, his arrest might seem less ominous. 
     But Russia lacks a fully independent judicial system, and the 
     government still uses criminal prosecution as a political 
     weapon. He is charged with embezzling at least $10 million in 
     federal property, apparently involving his purchase of a 
     state-owned television station in St. Petersburg. He says the 
     accusations are false.
       There is a stench of political retaliation about this case. 
     Mr. Gusinsky's company, Media-Most, owns numerous newspapers 
     and magazines as well as Russia's only independent television 
     network. Their coverage of the war in Chechnya has been 
     aggressive and skeptical, and they have not been hesitant to 
     investigate government corruption and other misconduct. Last 
     month heavily armed federal agents raided the Media-Most 
     office in Moscow, the first signal that the Kremlin might be 
     trying to intimidate Mr. Gusinsky.
       Mr. Putin seemed surprised by the arrest, calling it ``a 
     dubious present'' when he arrived in Madrid on Tuesday. That 
     offers little comfort to anyone concerned about Russia's 
     fragile freedoms. If the arrest was meant to embarrass Mr. 
     Putin while he is visiting Western Europe, it is disturbing 
     evidence of palace intrigue and political instability in the 
     Kremlin. If Mr. Putin received advance notification about the 
     arrest and failed to order the use of less draconian tactics, 
     he has done a disservice to the press freedoms he says he 
     supports.
                                  ____


               [From the Washington Post, June 15, 2000]

                      Mr. Putin Shows His KGB Face

       The most recent defining act of Russia's new president, 
     Vladimir Putin, is more Soviet than democratic. In an 
     apparent effort to intimidate the press, Mr. Putin has 
     engaged in police-state tactics so crude that even his 
     severest critics seem stunned. For those who wonder whether 
     Mr. Putin's Russia will move toward joining civilized Europe, 
     and whether it will nurture the legal protections that could 
     attract investment and encourage prosperity, the latest news 
     is ominous.
       On Tuesday Mr. Putin's prosecutors summoned Russia's 
     leading media tycoon, ostensibly simply to answer some 
     questions about an ongoing case. When Vladimir Gusinsky 
     appeared, without lawyers, the government threw him into the 
     Moscow hellhole known as Butyrka Prison. He remains there, 
     though he has not yet been formally charged with any crime.
       The case has significance beyond the rights of any one 
     person. Mr. Gusinsky heads a media company that owns the only 
     Russian television network not under Kremlin control. The 
     company also owns a radio station and publishes a daily 
     newspaper and a weekly magazine (the last in partnership with 
     Newsweek, which is owned by The Washington Post Co.). All of 
     these properties have challenged official orthodoxy by 
     reporting an official corruption and on Mr. Putin's savage 
     war in Chechnya. The arrest will be seen, and no doubt was 
     intended, as an attempt to silence President Putin's critics. 
     ``There is a pattern here, and we have seen it for some 
     time,'' U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott told 
     The Post yesterday. ``It has a look and feel to it that does 
     not resonate rule of law. It resonates muscle; it resonates 
     power; it resonates intimidation.''
       Some Russian officials have presented the arrest as a 
     normal, even commendable, sign of Mr. Putin's determination 
     to fight corruption and establish a ``rule of law.'' Mr. 
     Gusinsky is one of a band of Russian businessmen who became 
     wealthy after the Soviet Union's dissolution in 1991 in part 
     by exploiting close ties to those in power. Whether a 
     plausible case can be made against Mr. Gusinsky or any of the 
     other oligarchs is something we cannot judge. But that Mr. 
     Putin's government should choose as its first target the only 
     businessman who has dared challenge Mr. Putin (and by far not 
     the wealthiest of the oligarchs) shows that this affair is 
     not about the rule of law.
       Mr. Putin's KGB background is widely known, but when he 
     ascended to power, many analysts expected him to wield power 
     with some subtlety. The audacity of the government's assault 
     is almost as stunning as the assault itself. The arrest is a 
     slap at President Clinton, who recently in Moscow urged Mr. 
     Putin to respect freedom of the press and who chose to speak 
     on Mr. Gusinsky's radio station. With how much spine will Mr. 
     Clinton and other Western leaders who have been even more 
     eager to embrace Mr. Putin, such as Britain's Tony Blair, now 
     respond? Many Russians will be watching.
                                  ____


             [From the Wall Street Journal, June 15, 2000]

                           Putin v. Gusinsky

       The arrest Tuesday of mogul Vladimir Gusinsky is either the 
     first salvo in a Kremlin war against rent-seeking oligarchs 
     or a return to the Soviet-era practice of taking political 
     prisoners. It was either carried out with the knowledge of 
     the Russian President, or (as he says) it was done behind his 
     back while he is on a foreign trip. However you serve it, it 
     doesn't look good.
       Mr. Gusinsky may fit the stereotype of a Russian oligarch, 
     but his arrest is significant because his Media-Most group 
     includes Russia's only independent national television 
     channel, NTV. While state television in Russia often has all 
     the objectivity of a broadcast in Castro's Cuba. NTV is 
     regarded as relatively objective in its news coverage. In 
     commentary, however, NTV and other Media-Most holdings have 
     been fiercely critical of the Kremlin, President Putlin and 
     the war in Chechnya, which remains his main policy 
     achievement to date. For this reason, any campaign against 
     Media-Most, wittingly or not, sends a chill throughout 
     Russia's free press.
       The allegations against Mr. Gusinsky are unclear. A 
     statement said he is accused of embezzling $10 million from 
     the state, though no details were given. Even taking the 
     explanation of embezzlement at face value, one is left with 
     the question of just what is the Kremlin's agenda. After all, 
     as the chief of the oligarchs and Gusinsky rival Boris 
     Berezovsky noted. ``There is no doubt that any person who did 
     business in Russia over the last 10 years broke the law, 
     directly or indirectly in part because of the contradictory 
     nature of Russia law.'' Mr. Berezovsky may be thinking, there 
     but for the grace of the Kremlin go I, but he has a point.
       The lack of precise laws and enforcement and the ease with 
     which insider contacts could be parlayed into millions has 
     contributed to the moral turpitude and general disregard for 
     law and fair play in much of the Russian establishment. Now 
     even Boris Yeltsin's daughters are under investigation

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     by Swiss authorities for allegedly running up large credit 
     card bills at the expense of a Swiss company that was awarded 
     lucrative Kremlin building contracts.
       In Moscow yesterday, 17 prominent businessmen, including 
     Mr. Berezovsky, wrote an open letter to the prosecutor 
     general, saying Mr. Gusinsky's arrest threatens to destroy 
     confidence in Russian as a place to do business. ``Until 
     yesterday we believed we live in a democratic country.'' they 
     wrote. ``Today we have serious doubts about that.''
       If Mr. Putin really want to tackle corruption, he may have 
     to put the worst offenders in jail. But more important, he 
     will have to overhaul the Russian legal system and its 
     enforcement mechanisms and reduce the bureaucracy and 
     regulation that give rise to so much graft and make 
     government more transparent. Since most successful or 
     powerful people in Russia have something to hide. It is not 
     hard for the Kremlin to wield the ``law'' as a political 
     weapon to badger its enemies. But that's not cracking down on 
     corruption; that's just cracking down.
                                  ____


               [From the Financial Times, June 15, 2000]

                            Putin's Pressure

       A move by Vladimir Putin, Russia's new president, to clip 
     the wings of his country's formidable business barons was 
     widely anticipated. If he is going to reassert the power of 
     the state over the financial oligarchs who usurped much of 
     its authority during the Kremlin rule of Boris Yeltsin, that 
     is necessary. But the decision to arrest Vladimir Gusinsky, 
     the media tycoon, raises a number of questions.
       He is neither one of the most powerful nor one of the most 
     notorious of that group. His real claim to fame is that his 
     Media-Most group owns the television station NTV and Sevodnya 
     newspaper among others--outspoken critics of Mr. Putin's 
     government. In particular, they have questioned the conduct 
     of the war in Chechnya. They have undoubtedly reflected the 
     inclinations of their owner but they have also been healthily 
     outspoken. In so doing, they have been helping ensure that 
     the press acts as a critic of government--an essential 
     element in Russia's slow progress towards democracy.
       Mr. Gusinsky now appears to be paying the price. Although 
     his arrest is ostensibly on suspicion of fraud and the 
     illegal acquisition of state property worth $10m, the action 
     follows a particularly heavy-handed raid by security police, 
     armed to the teeth and wearing balaclava helmets, on his 
     headquarters--all suggesting a deliberate campaign of 
     intimidation. Other actions by Mr. Putin's administration 
     indicate a similarly harsh attitude to any sign of media 
     opposition. The TV station controlled by Yuri Luzhkov, 
     Moscow's mayor, is having to fight in the courts to renew its 
     license. The registration system for new publications has 
     been greatly tightened.
       The president does not appear to be a believer in glasnost, 
     the openness introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev into the Russian 
     media. More than any other reform, that probably guaranteed 
     the end of Communist rule and the Soviet Union. By allowing 
     exposure of the iniquities, incompetence and corruption of 
     the previous regime, glasnost ensured there was no going 
     back. By definition, however, glasnost was inimical to the 
     old KGB security service--Mr. Putin's secretive former 
     employer.
       President Bill Clinton has already expressed his concern 
     about signs of restrictions on press freedom in Russia. When 
     Gerhard Schroeder, the German chancellor, meets Mr. Putin 
     today, he should do the same, in strong terms. The Russian 
     president has said he knew nothing of Mr. Gusinsky's arrest. 
     He should have done, particularly in view of the widespread 
     protests that followed. An unfettered press is an essential 
     part of a market economy. He has a lot to learn.

                          ____________________