Irina Khakamada Hasn’t Disappeared
// Honest Elections
A meeting between presidential candidate Irina Khakamada and her authorized delegates shown live on the Russia (Rossiya) TV channel last Sunday was the cause of yet another preelection scandal. Marina Litvinovich, Khakamada’s chief of staff, accused the producers of cutting criticisms directed at President Vladmir Putin from the broadcast. The channel’s management responded by claiming there had been a technical failure.
On February 12, a meeting took place at Moscow State University (MGU) between presidential candidate Vladimir Putin and his authorized delegates, which Rossiya broadcast live. On February 14, candidates Nikolai Kharitonov and Irina Khakamada filed complaints at the Central Election Committee (TsIK), in which they claimed that this broadcast infringed on the rights of candidates to equal media access. On February 20, the TsIK refused to satisfy these complaints, since it regarded the broadcast as “voter information.” On March 4, the 2:00 edition of “The News” (Vesti) on Rossiya showed a direct connection from the meeting between candidate Kharitonov and his authorized delegates in Tula.
Irina Khakamada’s meeting with her authorized delegates took place in the candidate’s headquarters at 40 Bolshaya Yakimanka St. Rossiya showed an item from the meeting on the 2:00 edition of “Vesti”, with the heading “Live Broadcast.” However, Marina Litvinovich, the head of Irina Khakamada’s election headquarters, claimed that a question to the candidate from an authorized delegate, well-known actress Natalya Fateeva, had inexplicably been cut from the transmission. Ms. Fateeva had asked: “Irina Mutsuovna, you’re the only candidate opposing President Putin. All sensible people living in this country realize what’s happening and share your convictions. What is your program for opposing authoritarianism and a police state in which all democratic institutions are becoming little more than decorations?”
According to Ms. Litvinovich, Khakamada’s answer to this question was shown nearly in full in TV. Nevertheless, she was not satisfied with the TV news item. ”They promised us live coverage, and we acted on that basis,” Marina Litvinovich told Kommersant. “But a check showed that they had learned how to cut out something they didn’t like right on the air, which is a total affront.” Ms. Litvinovich was particularly displeased by the fact that representatives of the TV channel themselves “called and offered to show the meeting live.” “I don’t understand why they didn’t say honestly that they would cut out anything they didn’t like. It seems our live broadcasts are also being censored,” Marina Litvinovich complained.
In an interview with Kommersant deputy chairman of the All-Russian State Television and Radio Company (VGTRK), Andrei Bystritsky, denied all of Ms. Litvinovich’s accusations. “It’s hard to cut out anything live on the air now,” he said. “We’ve been very favorable to Irina Khakamada, and only Kharitonov can match her in the amount of air time we’ve given her. Mr. Bystritsky blamed the disappearance of Natalya Fateeva’s question on technical difficulties. “One camera was working with Khakamada, but the other one didn’t transmit the signal very well,” he explained. “So this part wasn’t shown on the 2:00 news for technical reasons. However, so that there won’t be any questions and to meet the wishes of the candidate for president on International Women’s Day, we’ll show the complete recording tomorrow (March 9 – Kommersant) on one of the editions of “Vesti”. We have a reference recording from the other camera.”
It should be added that Channel One (Pervy kanal) and Ren-TV also broadcast reports of the meeting between Ms. Khakamada and her authorized delegates. Some important points of this event were also missing from their coverage, but at Ms. Khakamada’s headquarters they have no complaints about these channels, because, as Ms. Litvinovich explained, “they didn’t broadcast the 29-minute meeting between Putin and his authorized delegates.” According to Marina Litvinovich, the office also has no intention of withdrawing its complaint to the TsIK, because the point in question is infringement of the rights of all candidates, not just Khakamada and Kharintonov, but also Sergei Glazev, whose meeting with delegates has still not been shown on state television.
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They Won’t Let Vladimir Putin Be Elected in Peace
The Central Election Committee received two complaints at the end of last week. Citizen Vladislav Dalchanin demanded candidate Vladimir Putin’s removal from the elections for taking advantage of his official position to dismiss the government. Mr. Dalchanin believed that candidate Putin himself had acknowledged that the decision to dismiss the government was “dictated by the wish to once again emphasize his position on the future course of the country’s development” if he was elected president of the Russian Federation. But this amounted to campaigning through the use of preferential media access.” Another voter, Aleksandr Babaitsev, informed the TsIK that after viewing a number of TsIK ads calling on people to come out and vote, he was strongly reminded of a United Russia (Edinaya Russia) ad during the parliamentary election campaign. In his opinion, the ads were subliminally urging people to vote for V.V. Putin.”
TsIK member Evgeny Kolyushin told Kommersant that the complaints “have no prospects”: Of course the government’s dismissal was an election move, but it could turn against Putin. As for hidden propaganda in the ads, this is a case where everyone knows all about it, but legally it’s impossible to prove anything.” Marina Litvinovich admitted to Kommersant that Dalchanin and Babaitsev were authorized delegates of Irina Khakamada. “We wanted to draw attention to any violation,” she explained. “We’re trying to find out if it’s possible to achieve justice through the courts. The TsIK sometimes refuses to consider complaints mainly because they don’t want any quarrels with the Kremlin. But we’re escalating the war.”
Maria Luisa Tirmaste, Nikolai Gulko, Irina Nagornykh
All the Article in Russian as of Mar. 09, 2004
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Photo: Vasily Shaposhnikov
