Russian authorities apparently go again increasingly against overly critical military bloggers in their own country This is according to a report by the US think tank „The Institute for the Study of War“ (ISW) which was published last Sunday. However, the way in which you deal with reporting critical of the Kremlin is said to have changed over time.
According to the ISW, former Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and his team are said to have “punished” several prominent Russian military bloggers, because they had spoken “too openly and harshly” about the military failures of the Russian army the think tank reports, citing Russian journalist Alexander Sladkov.
According to Sladkov, the Russian military prosecutor’s office had initiated a “criminal case for discrediting the Russian military” against Shoigu and other colleagues while he was still in office. At that time, the Defense Ministry “hypocritically tried” to teach Russian military bloggers how to as a reporter must behave “morally and in accordance with the state”reported the Russian war reporter.
According to Sladkov, Shoigu specifically tried to punish Russian military bloggers, even though they had personally reported to Russian President Vladimir Putin about problems on the Russian front. Shoigu was finally replaced as Defense Minister by Andrei Belousov in May this year – and Sladkov’s sentence was lifted with immediate effect under new leadership. The journalist subsequently described the new defense minister as a “serious improvement” over Shoigu and praised his successor as a good choice.
© imago/ITAR-TASS/IMAGO/Vadim Savitsky
According to the ISW, the fact that the journalist was immediately pardoned under the new leadership of the Ministry of Defense suggests that the Kremlin is pursuing a different policy in dealing with reporting critical of the state. According to the ISW, Putin is apparently increasingly aiming to protect prominent military bloggers such as Alexander Sladkov. “co-opt them instead of censoring them directly”say the military experts.
The Kremlin has most likely changed its strategy “in order to to maintain the semblance of freedom of speech in Russia and prevent unintentional viral spread,” said the US-based think tank.
How the Kremlin is pushing journalists to self-censor
Another example suggests that the Kremlin is supporting Russian journalists in reporting that is too critical of the state forces people to revise their own censorship.
According to the ISW, a Russian military blogger claimed in three Kremlin-critical videos that Russian authorities “remove inconvenient people” and have them arrested. One example cited was former Russian nationalist Igor Girkin, who was sentenced to four years in prison earlier this year after publicly criticising Putin.
The later retraction of the videos suggests that the Kremlin is successfully forcing military bloggers to self-censor for fear of punishment.
The Institute for the Study of War
Only a short time after the publication of the Kremlin-critical report, the blog operators published an audio recording in which they said that the author was “became emotional because of his strong nationalism.” The three videos have since been deleted.
According to the ISW, the Kremlin has recently been increasingly focusing on to force critical military bloggers to self-censor rather than pursuing a “more aggressive policy of direct censorship”.