The debacle raises questions about freedom of speech on Russian television. Writing for Grani.ru, Oleg Kozyrev comments on the event, and the public fear associated with Putin’s name.

The series that played the bit, titled, “Phenomenon,” is hosted by magician and self-proclaimed mystic Uri Geller, and ran Friday, September 5th on the state-run “Rossiya” channel.

Russia rubbed Putin
Oleg Kozyrev
Grani.ru
09/09/2008

Millions of Russian television viewers were glued to their screens and couldn’t believe their eyes. In a live broadcast on a state-run TV channel, on a Friday evening, they were trying to erase Putin himself in front of the whole country! His surname, written in black, was rubbed with fingers, with some kind of rag, the host ran around the studio in a panic, but the president didn’t yield. Putin simply was. And wouldn’t be rubbed off. One word – a phenomenon.

The country was exhausted in its search for new wizards. [Magician and psychic Grigory] Grabovoy was sent on assignment to distant places. [Anatoly] Kashpirovsky was forgotten. [Allan] Chumak couldn’t find any new jars to charge [with healing powers]. And hardly anybody believed the politicians.

In this far-from-simple situation, the state-run “Rossiya” television channel acted patriotically: it ordered, from abroad, the local Ostap Bender – Uri Geller. A person, who bends spoons from a distance and who finds out for the oil companies where there isn’t any oil (that, at least, is how he was presented to viewers).

Uri Geller took the easy money, which fell into his lap at his ripe age, by the horns, and against the background of the astonished eyes of Russia’s good-night beauty, Oksana Fedorova, got into the habit of bending spoons in front of people, and showing other wonders, which during Soviet times would be demonstrated by visiting hypnotists in any run-down community center. He wasn’t David Copperfield, of course, but could be watched, when one was tormented by insomnia, heartburn, or politics.

Since Uri Geller didn’t have enough tricks on reserve for the whole broadcast, the [channel] started diluting the magician with Russian variants of seers and their descendants. Everything was great, yet the show’s organizers, evidently, wanted to earn some money on SMS-voting. For this, they needed a live broadcast. And one shouldn’t expect anything good from a live broadcast, especially if there are viewers, that is to say, a live audience, in the studio.

Disaster came about when Alexander Char decided to show off his abilities. (The show’s website says that his great-grandmother was a witness – no, not a Jehovah’s [witness], but of the Tunguska meteorite’s fall.) The starting point of the trick was good. The plot of a detective story is hanging in a safe. Through viewer’s mouths, the Russian magician would map out how to solve his story, and learn who the killer was. Char piercingly looked at the first viewer and asked her to name the first word in the riddle. “A knife!” the girl exclaimed. The second viewer, after some mental suggestion, named “Munich.” And here the live broadcast broke down. Since, naturally, after the word “Munich,” the third viewer named the first person who came to his mind – [Prime Minister Vladimir] Putin. At this moment, [the channel’s General Director] Oleg Dobrodeyev, in all likelihood, tipped over in his chair.

KNIFE MUNICH PUTIN was written in black marker on the board. Uri Geller’s co-host went gray (despite a total absence of hair to begin with) right in the shot. “No, I’m being told here, that this won’t work,” “erase it,” “live broadcast, things do happen.” One heard, in every word of the unfortunate co-host, “don’t shoot me, this is a live broadcast, please, don’t shoot me!” The show’s technicians openly reveled in the effect. Again and again, KNIFE MUNICH PUTIN appeared in the shot. Some kind of assistant ran in and started to rub Putin’s name. But Putin didn’t want to leave the live broadcast. The black marker inscribed Putin’s name permanently. What was written with the marker didn’t want, by any means, to be cut from the live broadcast.

The live transmission continued, and something had to be done. Underneath, they wrote “Vladimir,” but KNIFE MUNICH PUTIN towered like a boulder over this weak apology. It threatened resignations and dismissals. Lubyanka [prisons] and Siberia. Exile to Ekho Moskvy [radio].

Having hurriedly brought the subject to a close, the television program’s leadership fell to their knees and prayed to the heavens that the program had a zero rating, that no one of the viewers had seen this disgrace. But there was a rating. And in a couple days the accursed Internet had also raised the shame up for discussion.

Weren’t the television executives right, that live broadcasts were becoming a thing of the past? Weren’t they right in trying to show as few live people in the shot as possible? They had forgotten the instructions of their TV-ancestors. They had relaxed.

It’s an entertainment show, they thought. And here’s how it turned out –it became necessary to rub the prime-minister in front of the eyes of millions of their countrymen. Most certainly thinking to themselves – what did happen there, in Munich? And why were they rubbing Putin?

From this day forwards, I started to respect Uri Geller. Whatever you may say, but all of Russia saw, how these people caved in. From just one name. From just one name they caved in, in a way that aluminum spoons hadn’t dreamed of.

And it seems to me, that the atmosphere in the country has nothing to do with it. It’s just this kind of phenomenon.

translation by theotherrussia.org
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video (in two parts):

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According to the latest HRW report, the number of casualties in South Ossetia was grossly exaggerated by Russian officials. Russian authorities also scaled down their estimates on August 22nd by more than 10 times. Video prepared by Dmitri Borko.

South Ossetia: Crimes and Myths. Part 2
August 20, 2008
Source: Grani.ru / Grani-tv.ru
translation/subtitles by: theotherrussia.org

Watch Part 1 of the interview

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Transcript:
(interviewer) in connection with the looting, which is now eagerly being discussed on both sides.

(TL) So, looting happens… Well, looting can be different, actually, and in the context of this story, one can speak about two types of looting. One is completely normal looting, right, the standard war-time looting, when militiamen, in this case, right, or simply people, men, go into abandoned houses, and steal everything that they see and everything that they like out of there. There is a different kind of looting, completely targeted, which we also documented there, this is looting directly in the Georgian villages, which have for a number of years existed practically as enclaves on the territory of South Ossetia. And this looting, by our observations, was, well if not organized, then highly systematic and targeted.

We drove on this road to the city.. got stuck in an enormous traffic jam. And when, before we were stuck in this traffic jam, we drove through several Georgian villages. We saw several burning buildings, some of which were already just embers. We saw looters, undoubtedly militiamen, running into houses, carrying furniture out of there, carrying rugs, carrying some kind of household appliances, like vacuum cleaners, televisions.

They load this into their cars, very happy with themselves, shouting, laughing, very joyful to all that is happening.

And in that hour that we were stuck in the traffic jam, dozens of burning houses appeared in these villages. Just in the hour that we spent on the road.

Yes, here I should immediately explain that the people, the residents, left the villages, for the most part. But as usually happens in war, the oldest and the most helpless are exactly the ones who remained. There were few of them. In the four villages we visited, you could gather, well, 20 to 30 people, no way there were more. No way there were more. But none the less, these are absolutely desolate old people, who remained without food, without water, in burning villages.

We spoke with three such people. For two of them, militiamen had burned down their houses. One old woman, they literally burned her house, that is, set her house on fire an hour before we began speaking with her. She just stood there, wringing her hands against the background of her house, which blazed like a torch, literally. An old man, who was 74 years old, if I’m not mistaken, who we also spoke with, for him, on the eve of our drive on this, in truth, terrifying road, a group of militiamen went into his house, and started to take some things out. He tried, well, not to resist them, how could he resist them, right, a single old man against several armed people. But to say something to them, “Don’t touch this. Don’t touch this.” On that spot, they set fire to his house.

They asked very much that the MES [Emergency Situations Ministry] somehow get involved in the situation. They asked very much that the international humanitarian organizations do something. And you know, as result, yes, everything somehow moved from a standstill. Because sometime, after a day, and of course we raised а tremendous uproar, the Russian soldiers put checkpoints on this road. Stopped letting the militiamen go, naturally, to these villages.

(interviewer) Were you able to do anything else there, on the ground?

As far as I understand it, from what the surrounding people told me later, there actually were some problems which we understood first, and spoke so loudly about, that something got off the ground. So, we really exerted all possible and impossible efforts so that the bodies of Georgian servicemen, which were laying in the street in 30 degree heat, be removed from the city. And all told, there were two different considerations that made it completely urgent to solve this problem. A purely sanitary sense, because ultimately, the risk of an epidemic was rising. Well, and a humanitarian sense.

When we first started interviewing the people there, these were people in a deep state of shock. They still didn’t completely understand what had happened, and how this could have happened to them. And here they come out of their home, and the first thing they see at their doorstep is a decomposing corpse. Well, what a big joy is it for them. On the other hand, these dead Georgian soldiers, they have relatives. And it should be said that after all our long shouts, some kind of movement happened on this spot, and the MES people took the bodies, put them in zinc, and somehow, temporarily buried them. We hope that afterwards, later, they’ll start turning these bodies over to Georgia.

We did not have time to attend to one issue, which concerns us very much, and we hope to pursue it, and that’s the problem of prisoners of war, ordinary prisoners, and I believe there may be such a thing as a problem of hostages.

(interviewer) What is the state of those injured in South Ossetia, in your evaluation.

One can speak of tens of victims, among the civilian, among the peaceful residents. But by no means thousands. And why we seized on these figures so much, and now we are severely being accused there that we are trying to, by playing into the hands of Saakashvili, and therefore in reality America, because we are in an engaged position. Since, how else could it be, we have an office in New York. That we are trying to lower the casualties.

We are trying to do exactly one thing. We are endeavoring that a sound count of these same casualties be carried out. And that instead of throwing accusations of genocide and ethnic cleansing into each other’s faces, that both Russia and Georgia finally came to their senses, counted their dead, counted their wounded, analyzed what is happening, and tried to find some kind of way out from this very bad situation. And if the highest officials continue to say that thousands of people have died, then this only complicates the way out of the crisis. Because the populace of that same Ossetia, will simply never be able to forgive the deaths of thousands of peaceful residents.

South Ossetia: Crimes and Myths. Part 1
August 20, 2008
Source: Grani.ru / Grani-tv.ru
Video prepared by Dmitri Borko.
translation/subtitles by: theotherrussia.org

Watch Part 2 of the interview.

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transcript:

(Tatyana Lokshina speaking)

You know, this was a situation where, just now, there was very heavy shelling, just now there was a very short but nonetheless war, and both official and unofficial people wanted very much to tell what had happened to them.

Personally, I have worked very much in Chechnya in the past several years, and today, the problem there is that the level of fear among the populace is completely out of control, and everyone has long gone silent because of this fear, and it is extremely difficult to obtain information.

In Ossetia, everything was completely the other way around, any person was ready to tell their story, the story of their family, the story of their neighbors, anything you wanted.

The only thing was, and this relates to the issue of information, and the collection of information, or how to do it correctly or incorrectly.

So you come to any house, a house that has been destroyed by shelling, and there were quite a few of those there.

Not the 70% that the MES (Emergency Situations Ministry) claimed, no way near 70, but many.

The city, in the Center and South suffered serious enough destruction, and so you walk into one of these little courtyards, with its box-like houses, houses with holes from Grad [missiles], with torn-apart apartments, houses that are actually seriously damaged, their residents are sitting there, and you walk up to these residents and tell them:

“Were you here during the shelling?”

“Yes”

“Tell me what happened here, these days when the war was going on.”

And immediately, and of course these people have been sitting in basements for several days, they are exhausted, they are under immense stress, and they start to relate what happened very emotionally.

The first thing they tell you, of course, is that the Georgians are just fascists.

This isn’t a nation, but a disgrace, and there should be no more Georgians on the earth, because they’re such fascists, and that this was worse than what the Germans did during the Great Patriotic War [WWII].

So you ask:

“What did they do?”

Well, they start telling you how they ran over infants with the caterpillar belts of their tanks, how they raped women, how they put young men against a wall and shot them in front of their mothers.

Then, when you ask more directed questions, you learn that the person you’re speaking with didn’t see this himself, but someone else told it to him.

And who was it that told him?

Well, let’s say it was Vasya from the neighboring street.

Then you go to the neighboring street, and look for Vasya for a long time.

You find Vasya and tell him:

“Well, you know Fedya said you had witnessed this nightmare, and it’s just.. my oh my..” or however it’s customary to do it.

They click their tongues there as they do in Chechnya.

“And tell me, Vasya, what was the nightmare.”

Vasya starts to tell you approximately the same thing, and then it turns out he also didn’t actually see it, and who saw it was some, I don’t know, Stepa.

Stepa also didn’t see it, and so on indefinitely.

In truth, we found a great deal of evidence, completely solid proof that indiscriminate weapons were used there, that Grad [missile systems] were used there, which were used to shell residential blocks.

That much of the destruction of the city was precisely the result of Grad missiles.

There are rockets laying around, and fragments of rockets laying around, we photographed them, we understand approximately how and where they hit, and from which side they flew.

And without a doubt, they flew from the Georgian side.

Well, I’m saying this now in advance, because at the moment there are various speculations.

For instance, all of a sudden, that maybe it was Russia that bombed everything to spite Georgia.

Mr. Saakashvili told CNN that Russia leveled Tskhinvali from the face of the earth, and to discover this, they should look at reports by Human Rights Watch, although Human Rights Watch never said anything of the sort.

Which is just wonderful.

Yes, shelling was done with Grad missiles, yes it came from the Georgian side.

Yes, tanks rolled into the city.

The army acted in, pardon the cliche, the Chechen scenario.

And specifically, first in the population centers, and I’m not just speaking about Tskhinvali, but let’s say the villages that we were in.

First a bombardment took place, then, after a massive shelling, the armored vehicles moved in.

And after the armor, the infantry forces walked in.

On the level of the shelling, and the armor, genuinely, the rights of the civilian population were violated.

Weapons were used which in no case can be used.

There were direct tank attacks on residential buildings, and on the building’s basements.

And in the basements sat those same children, women and old men who didn’t leave the city.

There were many bad things.

But from the point of view of the atrocities that, supposedly, were committed by individual Georgian soldiers, the infantry, we did not find any information from first-person sources.

There are very many rumors, very many appalling stories, but I do not have proof of it as of yet, though I expect to return to the region, and maybe I will find it.

Naturally, if I find it, I will in no case conceal it.

And in the villages, say in the village of Khitogorovo, which is 6 kilometers, if I’m not mistaken, from Tskhinvali.

When the infantry troops came in, the infantry, judging by everything, the foot soldiers were certain that there were very many [Ossetian] militiamen in the village.

I don’t know where they got this information.

They were shooting, from machine guns, at all the entry-ways, simply in a row, as they moved through, and several people died there, whose relatives we spoke with.

All of this happened.

I surmise that the Georgian side, in response to such allegations from Human Rights Watch, will say:

“What peaceful residents?”

“What residential blocks?”

“In every block, there were militiamen.”

You know, I don’t deny that there were undoubtedly militiamen in every block.

And the militiamen defended the houses.

They also don’t hide this.

And say completely calmly:

“We have wives here, we have children here, our relatives are here.”

“These are our houses, what else are we supposed to do?”

Their family members tell of the same thing.

“Of course, our boys, this is their responsibility.”

But even the presence of militiamen, right, in residential quarters, from the point of view of international law, does not justify neither the use of Grad installations, nor direct tank hits on apartment buildings.

In the same village of Khitogorovo, I was told that when the infantry marched in, they shot up all the entry-ways, several people died.

And several of these Georgian foot soldiers, they walked into one courtyard, of course they were going into all the yards, looking for armed men, looking for weapons.

And in the courtyard were sitting, well, an old man and an old woman. Just an old man and an old woman. Completely stunned by the shelling, completely lost.

And the foot soldiers are really young guys, to tell the truth, not more than 20 years old, and they stood up straight, having walked into the courtyard, and, horror-stricken, stared at these old-timers.

And said, “What are you doing here?”

And those replied, “What do you mean, we live here.”

“We thought there were only military people here.”

In principle, there are a good number of such stories, so there is a basis to believe that many Georgian soldiers, in striking houses and courtyards, saw their situation as a standoff against militiamen, never stopping to think that there could be peaceful people there.

It is possible that they were fed fables that the peaceful people had long since left.