What an extraordinary open letter from *Moskovsky Komsomolets* editor-in-chief Pavel Gusev to “journalist” Kiselyov:
This is quite important. We are on the verge of a major transformation: the authorities want to turn the remaining relatively independent media outlets (though still willing to play by the rules) into propaganda machines like *Vesti Nedeli*, NTV, and Rossiya 24.
Such media outlets, naturally, resist. They still want to do journalism in some form. To engage readers, to have influence. Yes, to keep the publication alive they will sometimes print what is required, but they still reserve the right to land a punch now and then.
*Moskovsky Komsomolets* is very revealing in this respect. They will praise Putin, and they will also publish Minkin’s letters. For example, after United Russia’s recent primaries, the paper ran several obligatory flattering articles, but it also published truthful reports about electoral fraud.
You could call it “schizophrenia,” or you could say they are simply surviving however they can. That is a separate discussion.
The main point is that this model has clearly stopped satisfying the Kremlin. An “acceptable level of loyalty” is no longer enough; now only the Kiselyov model will do—information is completely displaced by lies, and news stories and investigations are simply fabricated.
So what we are seeing is a battle: Gusev is fighting publicly to defend his right to at least keep a fig in his pocket (a Russian expression meaning hidden defiance), against Kiselyov’s concept that the media’s only purpose is to lick boots.
In the short term, of course, Kiselyov will win.