First, Nemtsov, 49, was barred by police from attending a public meeting of local businessmen on March 17th, according to the Interfax news agency.   The former Deputy Prime Minister and governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region wasn’t intending to speak, but officers stopped him at the door, insisting that prior registration was required.  Despite vocal protests from a group of participants that prior registration was not necessary, Nemtsov was not allowed in.

Next, a mock debate of four mayoral candidates scheduled to run on March 22nd was pulled from the NTV television station.  Writing in his LiveJournal blog, Nemtsov alleged that the clip was cut on personal order of Vladislav Surkov, a close aide to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.  Instead of the 7 minute segment, which asked candidates to explain their positions and delved into the Sochi election, the channel repeated a program on “young stars of show-business.”

Finally, unknown youngsters splashed the politician with a liquid smelling strongly of ammonia Monday, according to the Ekho Moskvy radio station.  Nemtsov, on his way to a press-conference, was sprayed in the face, and had to postpone his event to wash his eyes clean.  Ilya Yashin, a top figure in Nemtsov’s campaign, was also soaked, and blamed the provocation on the pro-Kremlin Nashi youth movement.  Nemtsov himself commented that authorities were simply scared of his candidacy.

Sochi, scheduled to host the 2014 winter Olympics, saw two mayors resign in 2008.  Residents have complained that Olympic preparations have been handled in a corrupt way, and that locals have been forced out of their homes to make way for construction projects.  Whoever becomes mayor will have to handle a multi-billion dollar budget allocated to create an Olympic village.

For his part, Nemtsov has proposed decentralizing the games, and holding only the opening and closing ceremonies in Sochi.  In an open letter to President Dmitri Medvedev (Rus), who is visiting the region, Nemtsov suggested that the burden of the Games should be spread between roughly a dozen cities.  Sochi does not have the necessary infrastructure to host the games, Nemtsov argues, adding that the budget for the Sochi Olympics is vastly higher than previous Winter Games.  The environmental effects on Sochi may also be devastating, he notes.

Nemtsov, who was born and raised in Sochi, said he decided to run for mayor after a group of residents wrote him an open letter asking that he enter the race.  Aside from Nemtsov, several other colorful figures have stepped forward, including murder suspect and Parliamentarian Andrei Lugovoi, and billionaire Alexander Lebedev.  Other contenders include an airline chief, an arm wrestling champion and a former ballerina, a combination that has sparked considerable country-wide interest in the election.

Anatoly Pakhomov, a member of the United Russia and the city’s acting mayor, is thought to have high chances due to his connections with the majority party.

The weeks leading up to the April 26th elections will undoubtedly see further issues and problems for Boris Nemtsov.  Despite the set-backs, the Kremlin critic has drawn out a plan of localized campaigning and maintains a cheerful disposition.

The new project is tentatively called the Independent Democratic Party of Russia, and plans to take part in 2011 parliamentary elections. According to Lebedev’s blog, the party will push for legal, economic and media reform, including “less state capitalism.”

The newspaper notes that Lebedev’s business interests suffered in August and September of this year, when Russia’s stock market fell sharply. Lebedev controls a small business empire, including a 30% share of Aeroflot, and co-owns the Novaya Gazeta newspaper with Gorbachev. He also owns the Moskovksy Korrespondent newspaper, which was shut down and reformatted after publishing a speculative article about Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s personal life.

Lebedev is listed as 358th in the Forbes magazine of the world’s richest people, and had an estimated net worth of 3.1 billion dollars before the market crash.

In 2007, Gorbachev was elected the chairman of the Union of Social Democrats, a Russia-wide social movement. His deputy, Mikhail Kuznetsov, confirmed that Gorbachev has been working on the creation of a new democratic party.

In 2002, Gorbachev helped to create the “Social-Democratic Party of Russia,” and later served as its chairman. The party was liquidated on April 16, 2007 by Russia’s registration agency, after the party could not come up with the necessary 500 members in a majority of Russian regions.

The post in question appeared on Lebedev’s personal LiveJournal site last summer. In it, the businessman wrote that another State Duma representative, Vladimir Medinsky, “lobbies on behalf of gambling industry interests.” An open letter with similar implications was also posted by Lebedev on the website of the Kommersant newspaper. Medinsky then filed a suit in defense of his honor, dignity and business reputation, asking for 100 million rubles (€2.7 or $4.2 mln) in compensation.

According to a statement released by Medinsky’s press-service, the case is precedent-setting, marking the first time that “a ruling on the defense of honor, dignity and business reputation, concerning publications in a weblog, had led to tangible consequences for the guilty party.”

Medinsky himself said that the ruling was an important step in setting guidelines for the media as it continues to move into the blogosphere. “It is essential to know what one may and may not do,” the parliamentarian said. “Regardless of whether 500 thousand people read it, 5 thousand or merely 50.”

“Insulting other people with impunity in ones weblogs is now impermissible.”

Artem Artemov, Lebedev’s press-secretary, said the businessman was unhappy with the ruling and trial, but that he would comply fully with the law. “Lebedev does not agree with the Basmanny court decision,” he said. “But, as a law-abiding citizen, he has paid out 30 thousand rubles to Medinsky, and has published the phrase required by the court in his LiveJournal weblog.”

The Russian judicial system, while not based on precedents, does take past cases into account.

alternate spelling: Aleksandr Lebedev.

Lebedev, who calls the story a “personal vendetta” meant to discredit him, gives different reasons which may shed light on other difficult issues facing media in Russia. These includes constant pressure from local authorities over critical reporting, which targeted not only the Moskovsky Korrespondent, but also its advertisers and distributors. Other Russian papers have also complained of the same kind of harassment.

While Lebedev may have personal reasons for leaving the federal authorities blameless in his paper’s demise, the Putin article is having far-reaching consequences. New amendments to the media law, which redefine slander and libel, and give authorities powers to shut media outlets that print “false facts” have breezed through Russia’s lower house, the State Duma. The amendments, if signed into law, would give the Justice department the right to issue warnings to publications over libelous materials and then close them. One critic, Yelena Zelinskaya, a member of Russia’s Public Chamber, said it was absurd to close a publication for a single error: “If a doctor makes a mistake, do we have to close the entire hospital,” she asked?

Lebedev’s statement was published in the Novaya Gazeta, an independent publication often critical of authorities. Lebedev is a majority shareholder of the Novaya Gazeta.

“The lessons of Moskovskiy Korrespondent: Opinion of the founder of the suspended newspaper”
Aleksandr Lebedev
April 28, 2008
Novaya Gazeta
[translated by BBC Monitoring]

The termination of the publication of Moskovskiy Korrespondent, the Moscow city newspaper that had been coming out since last September, gave rise to various rumours and interpretations. With this response, I want to dot the “i’s” and cross the “t’s” and make an attempt to explain the implications of all of these events for the development of the news media in Russia.

The managing company said the main reason for the closure of the newspaper was its economic insolvency. This statement is completely true. The experience with this newspaper proved how much the Russian market for printed publications depends on the goodwill of the authorities – not federal, but local.

Moskovskiy Korrespondent criticized the policies of the local government in the capital, revealed the many problems Muscovites face and thereby created numerous uncomfortable situations for the “city fathers” [the Moscow authorities]. The result was the newspaper’s circulation problems, which are known to everyone and which were caused by retail chains breaking contracts for the sale of publications displeasing the municipal government. They lost money doing this and they never explained the reasons. The possibility of advertising, especially outdoors, which is of vital importance to a new newspaper, was also squelched. We know of the secret pressure that was exerted on potential advertisers, who “unexpectedly” had to stop working with Moskovskiy Korrespondent. They had to stop because it was too “dicey”.

Under these conditions, any further publication of the newspaper would have been a futile endeavour from the business standpoint. We do not want to mislead anyone, however: this was only part of the reason for shutting down the newspaper. Moskovskiy Korrespondent had a chance of overcoming its objective economic difficulties and winning a mass readership. This, however, would have required the newspaper to become a standard of objective information, a model of something commonly referred to as “journalistic integrity”.

Regrettably, this did not happen. The newspaper sank to the level of publishing rumours, “sensational” news stories backed up by nothing at all and of the lowest calibre. Furthermore, I now know that one of the most controversial pieces of gossip was custom-made and was printed in Moskovskiy Korrespondent as part of a personal vendetta against me. The chief editor frankly admitted that the editors might have been “taken in”. That was the last straw.

Two lessons must be learned from all of this. The first is for the authorities. The Russian media market, especially on the local level, must be free of administrative pressure. This is an essential condition for the development of truly independent news media, especially print media.

The second lesson is for the journalistic community. Everyone knows the wording of the law on the media, according to which the editors are responsible for published material. No one gives a second thought to what this “responsibility” entails, however. As a rule, it means the possibility of defamation suits filed by the people offended by news stories.

In addition, there is the moral side of the matter. I think journalists and editors should take a more conscientious approach to articles, especially in the case of rumours about the personal lives of citizens. Many things are also written on walls. They must learn to distinguish between information of public interest and phoney “tips” and “scoops” intended to hurt and defame people.

P.S. I would advise the chief editors of some newspapers and the federal and Moscow “career officials”, who are planning to dance on my grave, to become more familiar with the works of the great journalist Mark Twain, who made this famous remark after his obituary was published in the New York Journal: “The rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated”. Force a fool to pray and he will smash his forehead. They should not think they are on the same level as the people they are serving with their incendiary comments, “resolute condemnations” and inspections. Everything will be sorted out in time.

Putin was said to be romantically involved with Alina Kabaeva, a 24-year-old Olympic gold medalist who later turned to politics and now serves as a deputy in the State Duma. Widespread buzz that Putin was having trouble in his marriage fueled the flames, as did photos of Putin and Kabaeva together at various gatherings. Even before the rumor broke, Kabaeva had been called a “Putin babe,” one of a group of young women reportedly ordered by Putin to the pro-Kremlin United Russia party list, in an attempt to boost the party’s sex appeal before last year’s elections.

Now, after both Putin and Kabaeva publicly refuted the claims, and after the paper published a retraction, the chatter has ebbed somewhat. But the troubles of the Moskovsky Korrespondent are only beginning. Since the article was published, the tabloid’s offices have been visited several times by FSB agents. The paper’s billionaire owner was warned to beef up his personal security. And in a final twist, the publication has been shut down temporarily for “financial reasons.”

Artem Artemov, the general director of the paper’s parent company, commented on the decision to the Interfax news agency: “I took the decision to cease financing and therefore [cease] printing the newspaper, in connection with the large expense of publishing it, and also disagreement with editorial staff over its strategy.”

Artemov added that the Moskovsky Korrespondent’s lead editor, Grigory Nekhoroshev, had resigned.

The paper is owned by billionaire oligarch Aleksandr Lebedev, and some experts speculated that the article was planted as an attack on Lebedev, the paper, or even Putin.

Naturally, Artemov underscored that the closure had nothing to do with the scandalous marriage article.

“There can be no talk of any political motives in the suspension of the paper’s publication,” he said, adding that it was “purely a business matter.” “In the near future, we will establish a new strategy for the newspaper, and a business-plan for its development.