You may have already heard. Putin has ordered the closure of The New Times magazine. That is how this news should be framed, even though the media are presenting it under the headline, “The New Times magazine fined 22 million rubles.”
Let’s be honest. This is not a fine, but a political notice of closure. No court, together with the Justice Ministry, is making decisions like this.
This really is the largest fine in the history of the Russian media.
It sounds outrageous on its face: a 22 million ruble fine for violations in publishing a magazine.
Did they find dynamite in the newsroom? Dismembered bodies? Tens of millions in unreported profits?
You rarely see fines like this even in criminal cases, and here it’s over publishing a magazine.
Umar Dzhabrailov, high on drugs, fired at a hotel ceiling. Fine: 500,000 rubles.
Tyumen City Duma speaker Dmitry Yeremeyev, responsible for a car crash that killed two people — a 160,000 ruble fine.
Denis Kosarev, former chairman of Karelia’s State Property Committee and former deputy head of Petrozavodsk — 5 million rubles for a 2.6 million ruble bribe.
Viktor Kedrov, former head of Mordovia’s Federal Treasury office, received a fine of 450,000 rubles for a 1 million ruble bribe.
*The New Times* magazine — 22 million rubles.
In short, I don’t know how. That strategy must be determined by the magazine itself, its publisher Yevgenia Albats, and their lawyers. But whatever the rescue plan is, we all absolutely must help, and we will.
I personally will help. And I urge everyone to do the same. If *The New Times* is shut down, it will become A HUNDRED TIMES WORSE for every other media outlet. And quite soon.
Here is what Zhenya herself writes about this situation: