We had to sit through an hour and a half of Medvedev’s empty chatter (with the most quoted lines being “I’m a good guy in the government” and “our women are great”) just to find out whether there would be any comment on our investigation into the Chaikas.
After all, today is International Anti-Corruption Day, so there is even a formal reason to say: Dmitry Anatolyevich, for a week now millions of people online have been discussing an investigation into the possible ties between the leadership of the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Tsapok gang (a notorious Russian criminal gang responsible for multiple murders), as well as corruption allegations against the family of the Prosecutor General. The major national media are silent. Chaika himself is dodging journalists. We would like to clearly understand your position on this matter.
Is that so difficult?
At first I was deeply, deeply disappointed by RBC editor-in-chief Elizaveta Osetinskaya, who asked something along the lines of, “Everyone is talking about Chaika, but that’s not what I want to ask about right now. Clearly your asset declaration system isn’t working — what should be done about it?” In doing so, she handed Medvedev a perfect opportunity to ramble on about anything he liked without mentioning Chaika by name or saying a word about the investigation. Osetinskaya is one of the country’s leading — and best — journalists, and she has no business engaging in this kind of nonsense; that’s the turf of people like Irada Zeynalova and Sergei Brilyov (well-known pro-Kremlin TV presenters).
Fortunately, I didn’t have time to write out everything I think about this kind of “journalism,” because Mikhail Fishman from TV Rain saved the situation by returning to the subject, briefly describing the essence of the investigation, and asking a direct question.
At that point, I hoped we would get one of those classic “Medvedev playing to the internet” moments, and that he would say something like: “This whole investigation is nonsense; we’ve known all this for a long time. I want to reassure the public that the country’s leadership has already issued all the necessary instructions. And the authors of this so-called investigation are criminals themselves.”
That did not happen, unfortunately. Instead, Fishman was told that sweeping accusations are a road back to the 1930s, that nothing should be done in haste, and that people should “take it to law enforcement.” In other words, apparently, to Chaika.
Emotionally, as a citizen, I am of course outraged and ready to say a lot of harsh — but fair — things.
If we set emotions aside, I note with satisfaction that once again no one wants to defend Chaika. No one can bring themselves — and most likely no one wants — to say anything neutral or positive about him. After all, another scenario was entirely possible: “The facts from this so-called investigation have been checked and were not confirmed. We know who is behind these ‘leaks’; they are simply playing on the public’s emotions and distorting the facts.”
The authorities chose a different option: stay silent, dodge, and stall. To criticize Chaika would mean losing face and giving in to Navalny. To rescue Chaika is impossible. So they will simply wait for it to be forgotten — people in this country are assumed to have short memories.
And it is clear to us what to do in that case: show that our memory is better than they think. Spread the information. The film has already been watched by 3.1 million people; it needs to be seen by 5 or 10 million, and then they too will probably start asking questions. We’ll see how Medvedev and company answer them.
As for the rest of the press conference, it is a real shame there were no questions about Turchak or Nemtsov. If I knew how to make Travolta GIFs, I’d make one about this press conference.