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24.07.07
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Stifling Dissent In Kalmykia
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By Shaun Walker
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The region of Kalmykia makes for an interesting case study of Russian local media, and in some ways can be seen as a microcosm of media in Russia as a whole. Kalmykia, which has a population of around 300,000, about half of whom are ethnic Kalmyks and one third ethnic Russians, is situated between Astrakhan and Stavropol regions, in the south of Russia. A swathe of steppe bordering the Caspian, largely free of the ethnic problems or social unrest that often blight some neighboring regions, Kalmykia nevertheless hits the news reasonably frequently, mainly due to its eccentric president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov.
Ilyumzhinov, the chess-obsessed millionaire who has run the region since 1993, dominates the local media even more than President Vladimir Putin dominates Russian national media. Kalmykia does not have its own television station, but it does have a fifteen minute local supplement on the nightly Vesti national news program on the Rossiya channel. During my stay there, the program ran an array of local interest stories each night, from the “Strongest Man in Kalmykia” contest being held in Elista, the regional capital, the disturbing actions of some Seventh Day Adventists who had set up a summer camp for children and were indoctrinating them with scary religious rhetoric, to a taxi driver who continued to work every day despite losing a leg in an industrial accident.
Furthermore, each day, the newsreader would give a brief update on the whereabouts of Kalmykia and International Chess Federation head Ilyumzhinov. On Monday, he was in Tallinn, Estonia, negotiating with the head of the Estonian Olympic Committee and the former Estonian prime minister about the possibility of holding the world chess championships in Estonia in 2011. On Tuesday, he was in Moscow, conducting negotiations with Lukoil about investment in Kalmykia and preparing Kalmyk specialists to work with the company. On Wednesday, he was surprisingly absent from the bulletin, but was back on Thursday, preparing for a large meeting of the State Council in Rostov, to be chaired by President Vladimir Putin, and on Friday a long report on the meeting and Ilyumzhinov’s participation in it was aired.
Ilyumzhinov also featured heavily in the local press. The paper Khalmg Unn, the one newspaper that still prints half its content in the Kalmyk language, mentioned Ilyumzhinov three times on the front page alone on June 27. The newspaper has a print run of around 16,000 and recently celebrated its 50th anniversary – it was set up in 1957 when the Kalmyks returned to their homeland from Siberian exile.
In Izvestia Kalmykii, there were a few pages of news, six pages of television schedules, and a column about chess. Boris, a friendly photographer with a kung-fu style goatee beard and a row of gold teeth, has been working for the paper for more than thirty years. “When I first started work, we had a print run of 50,000, but now it's only around 13,000,” he said. “It was all very different when I started. It was ideologically very strict, and we had to support the party with everything.” What about now, I asked? He gave a nervous laugh. “Well, I suppose now it all depends on the people that finance the paper.” Izvestia Kalmykii used to be a government paper but is now run by a private investor. After a pause, he admitted: “Well, of course we are quite close to the administration.”
The municipal paper of the Kalmyk capital Elista, Elistinskaya Pravda, costs just 2 rubles and is very short on news, except for the “Kirsan Ilyumzhinov is on a business trip” variety. The most notable feature was a set of horoscopes on the back page with an unusual tone.
“Pisces: If any problems occur in the workplace this week, it's best to ignore them; Sagittarius: Don't put off taking out insurance, filling in your will, or taking care of other financial issues; Leo: Focus on things that don't need too much concentration or intellect. Don't be too honest with your colleagues, they won't like it. It's better to lie; Gemini: You're likely to have serious problems in business this week. Beware of cheats, intrigue and bribery.”
One of the only papers that has a critical tone towards the Ilyumzhinov government and covers political stories in a multi-dimensional fashion is Sovietskaya Kalmykia Segodnya, an irregularly published paper funded by a Kalmyk businessman who lives in Moscow. Nine years ago, Larisa Yudina, the former editor of the paper was found violently murdered. After a long investigation, two men – former aides to Kirsan Ilyumzhinov – were convicted of the murder. The current editor, Valery Badmayev, recalled how a few days before the murder, Yudina told him that she had come into possession of a document, given to her by someone working in the government who had used to be part of the opposition. Kalmykia was then an offshore tax zone, and thousands of companies were registered there. The document, said Badmayev, clearly showed how these companies would not pay any local tax, but for the privilege of registering in the tax-free zone, they made a payment of 1,250 Euro per month into the personal bank account of Kirsan Ilyumzhinov.
“He lied about being a millionaire before he became president of Kalmykia,” said Badmayev. “This is how he became one.” If the allegations are true, it was certainly a profitable scheme – at one point there were over 12,000 companies registered in Kalmykia. A few days after Yudina showed Badmayev the document, she was found murdered.
Nine years later, the paper is still trying to raise controversial issues, but is facing more problems than ever. “When we had normal financing from local businessmen, we came out twice a month,” said Badmayev. But recently, our funding has dried up, and we only come out irregularly. We are trying to publish at least once a month, but so far this year, there have only been two issues.”
“It's far from a commercial project, its a loss-making one,” continued Badmayev. “But given that the television and the three main papers all serve the government, and in the first instance Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, we think we don't have a right to stop – there is a need for alternative information.” He added that the authorities move quickly to restrict access to sources of alternative information, mentioning a website hosted at elista.org. “It was created by people living in Moscow, and it was quite controversial. There were bold, serious discussions – but then the government bought it out, and now it only hosts information agreed on by the Ilyumzhinov administration.”
Sovietskaya Kalmykia Segodnya has been refused registration in Kalmykia itself, so it is published in Volgograd region and brought into the republic in the back of private cars. It's then distributed by hand, as none of the press kiosks will take the risk of selling it.
I asked Sanal Shavaliyev, the editor of Khalmg Unn and the chairman of the Kalmykia Union of Journalists, about media in the republic. “There are all kinds of opinions expressed in the media here,” he said. “We have a completely free situation – people can write whatever they want.” I asked him about the opposition media, and specifically about Sovietskaya Kalmykia. “It's true that it doesn't get printed here – I can't remember where it does get printed – but you can buy it freely wherever you want. There's no problems with freedom of speech here.”
I tried in five kiosks to obtain a copy of the paper and was told each time that they didn't have it or expect to get it. Like in so many other areas of Russia, the official rhetoric and the reality diverge wildly. So while Badmayev and his journalists continue to risk their lives publishing inflammatory material, most Kalmyks will have to make do with comedy horoscopes. |
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