Dear journalists of Russia.
As Galina Timchenko rightly writes—the former editor-in-chief of Lenta and current editor-in-chief of Meduza—live call-in shows with Putin/Medvedev are ritual events, not substantive ones. We already know, with considerable accuracy, what answers will be given. What matters far more is which questions will be asked and how they will be put.
Don’t take part in this circus as backup dancers—what would be the point of being journalists at all then?
Here is my own version of the “journalist’s minimum”—the set of essential questions that must be asked today:
— Chaika. This should not be just one question. Keep asking until there is a clear answer, and do not let him retreat into the usual Peskov-style line: there is no prosecutor general involved there, only adult children, and we’ve already looked into it (if you looked into it, then stop insulting our intelligence and say who exactly did the looking). We don’t need to hear about who commissioned the investigation; even if the client were Allen Dulles, we still saw the bank records and all the documents. Under the law, only Putin can remove Chaika from office, so this is a personal decision and a personal responsibility. I strongly recommend reading Chaika’s biography on Meduza—even without our investigation, it becomes clear that a person like this should not be a prosecutor in principle.
— Nemtsov. Clear questions about Kadyrov’s involvement. It is absurd that the people said to have ordered the crime and paid its enormous costs are supposedly some low-level police officers who do not even have that kind of money.
— Turchak. Enough incriminating evidence has been published against the governor in connection with an attempted murder. Why was he not removed from office at least for the duration of the investigation?
— Peskov. Sitting at your left hand is a man repeatedly exposed, if not for corruption itself, then for spending that exceeds his income by hundreds of times. The watch, the yacht, the house. How can you talk about fighting corruption at all when this is your closest associate? There has been no response and no investigation.
— Platon. Everyone—70% according to the Levada Center (an independent Russian pollster)—considers the system not merely unfair, but corrupt. Why did Igor Rotenberg become its co-owner without any competitive tender, when his only qualification is being the son of your childhood friend? This is blatant corruption.
— Oleg Navalny. He is not just imprisoned as a hostage because of his brother’s investigations; he is, in effect, being tortured. He has been portrayed as practically the worst repeat prison-rule violator in the country. He has been hit with 19 (!) bogus disciplinary penalties, sent to the punishment cell three times, and is now being held under strict conditions with no parcels, phone calls, or visits.
— Serdyukov and Vasilyeva. Your declared fight against corruption has turned out to be a sham. The whole country watched reports about billions being stolen. Yet Serdyukov never ended up in the dock and now holds senior positions at state-funded defense enterprises. Vasilyeva spent only a handful of days in a penal colony (though it seems she may not even have spent those). Why were these people granted immunity from prosecution? Why is property stolen by Serdyukov being freely registered in the name of his father-in-law, former Prime Minister Zubkov?
— Ildar Dadin and political prisoners, using his case as an example. The contrast with Serdyukov/Vasilyeva is stark. They are let go, while Dadin got three years for four one-person pickets. Who poses the greater danger to society: Serdyukov or Dadin?
— The lack of any response to public and journalistic investigations. Shoigu, Volodin, Neverov, Peskov, Patrushev, and so on. Both the ACF (Anti-Corruption Foundation) and many media outlets constantly present evidence of corruption and illicit enrichment. Not a single investigation, not a single result, no official response whatsoever. As if this were normal, and officials were free to build palaces worth hundreds of years of their official salaries.
— Katerina Tikhonova (Putin’s daughter) and her remarkable development projects involving Moscow State University. A president may choose to keep his family out of the public eye—that is understandable. But you cannot conceal a family member who has been put in charge of projects with multi-billion-ruble budgets. These are no longer matters of security, but of corruption. Citizens need clarity on these issues.
— The price of oil. You said that at $80 a barrel, the global economy would collapse. During the last call-in show, you said oil would inevitably rebound and everything would improve. Now oil is at $38 and everything is bad. Ulyukayev is still looking for the bottom. You have been in power for 16 years—longer than Gorbachev and Yeltsin combined. Why, over those 16 years, has nothing been done to move away from dependence on oil—in fact, that dependence has only deepened—and why has no other path for economic development been found except waiting for it to “rebound”?
There are other important questions too, but this is the minimum that would turn people with notepads and microphones into journalists.
P.S. There is a representative of *Leviathan* at the press conference: