On May 6, 2014, two years after peaceful protesters were beaten in Bolotnaya Square (the site of a major opposition rally in Moscow), and some of them were jailed, we learned that the rumors of an amnesty had finally been confirmed.
That’s right. An amnesty was granted. To Anatoly Eduardovich Serdyukov. The prosecutor’s office confirmed that it was lawful.
Well, all in all, that was to be expected. You only have to remember who appointed Serdyukov, why, and whose relative he is.
What’s interesting is something else: remember how the zombobox (a slang term for television) was shouting itself hoarse — "PUTIN HAS STARTED FIGHTING CORRUPTION," "OH, NOW HE’S REALLY GOING TO CRACK DOWN ON EVERYONE," "NOW WE’LL FINALLY SEE THAT PUTIN ISN’T CORRUPT AND DOESN’T LIKE CORRUPTION"?
I even have a favorite TV segment on the subject:
So it’s interesting to compare just how actively "Kuban journalism" (i.e., media from Russia’s Krasnodar region) is telling us about this remarkable ending to a high-profile case:
Yandex News, for the search term "Serdyukov," shows 161 news items under the story "The Main Military Prosecutor’s Office Declared Serdyukov’s Amnesty Lawful." Must be wall-to-wall TV coverage! After all, people are interested in the topic.
Alas, out of those 161 items — a more than modest figure — we see only two tiny TV news segments: NTV and Vesti.
That’s all. Our state media have suddenly lost interest in the Serdyukov case. These days, medals are handed out for very different kinds of stories.
And you ask why the internet is being censored and bloggers are being treated like mass media? A lot of people here have good memories — that’s why.