Putins Russia
March 2004 1333
Intro (written BEFORE the election:
He has no real rivals and couldnt lose if he tried. As President Vladimir Putin faces elections for a second four- year term, Russians are wondering whatever happened to the promise of democracy?
Foreign Correspondents, Eric Campbell searches for any trace of a campaign trail, as Russia prepares to give President Putin the political endorsement that other world leaders might envy.
Its not that his people think hes doing a brilliant job, but theres simply no political competition said Eric.
Mr Putin is guaranteed to win next week with as much as 80 per cent of the vote. The leaders of other parties arent even bothering to stand.
Russias leader is a KGB spy whos filled his administration with the old guard- generals, police chiefs and spooks. Hes even reinstated the Soviet national anthem.
Parliamentary elections have delivered President Putin a rubber stamp government. Russians are watching Vladmir Putin amass the kind of authority wielded by his communist era predecessors.
In Moscow life has improved, said Eric. The capital is a boomtown, full of luxury stores and designer shops.
But people in the country were hit hard by the end of Communism as factories and collective farms went bankrupt.
Eric investigates how a compliant media is supporting the President at the cost of his political rivals, and how business elite is supporting is flourishing under his administration.
Remarks anti corruption party leader Grigory Yavlinsky: This is not an election. This is a referendum about the support of Mr Putin.
TV studio control room MUSIC 00:00
Clips of news reports
Campbell: Imagine a country where the nightly news was your nations leader and the weather. Imagine if television portrayed your nations leader as a hero among men. Imagine if the only news about him was good. Welcome to Putins Russia.
00:12 MUSIC 00:33
Putin watching launch Whether its braving Arctic cold to watch a rocket launch or mixing it with Russias fighting men Or plunging to the ocean depths on a nuclear submarine President Putin is always the biggest story.
00:42 Priests ringing bells Church bells 01:08
In most of Russia, democracy is a dirty word.Zvenigorad -- meaning the town that rings -- is just a 40-minute drive from Moscow. But it has seen few benefits from more than a decade of Western-inspired reform.
01:16 Abandoned cowshed
Its Soviet-era factories and collective farms are bankrupt and abandoned.
01:33 Valentina and Vasily walking to shed
Valentina Fomina was once a proud tractor driver for a cattle collective. Now she and her husband Vasily cant even afford to feed themselves. This cow is the only thing that keeps them going.
01:40 Milking cow
VALENTINA: Under the Soviets we lived better than we live today.
01:53 Valentina and Vasily
Its very difficult. The pension is far too small.
VASILY: You know, one wants this or that.
VALENTINA: The price of bread goes up every day. Yesterday, 10 roubles a loaf -- today 40 kopeks more. Everything is getting more expensive.
VASILY: Its hard, its difficult
01:57 Vasily loading hay
Campbell: : And they blame politicians for their troubles, including Putin.
02:14 Valentina and Vasily
VALENTINA: It was Yeltsin who stirred up this mess. Well, it was Gorbachev who started it and then Yeltsin finished it up and now Putin. Will he be able to sort it up in four years? Surely not. He follows Yeltsin footsteps.
VASILY: Everything is expensive what can we do?
02:19 People in town
Campbell: : But like almost everyone here, Vasily and Valentina plan to vote for Putin not because they particularly like him, but because they dont see any alternative.
02:39 Valentina and Vasily
VASILY: Ill go for Putin, who else?
VALENTINA: Let Putin finish it hell help us out, or there will be more mess. Look, everything has been done already!
Soldiers marching
Campbell: : It is just four and half years since Putin emerged from the bureaucratic shadows as Boris Yeltsins handpicked successor. A former KGB spy, he has played up to Russians nostalgia for Soviet greatness. He has filled the Kremlin with generals, police chiefs and spooks. But for all the appearance of authority, he is seen by many if not most as the lesser of evils.
03:01 LilyaSuper: Lilya Shevtsova, Author Putins Russia
LILYA SHEVTSOVA: You know 78 per cent of Russians are going to vote for their incumbent president. But at the same time, only 15 per cent of those who are coming to the polls and are going to support Putin, only 15 percent are quite sure that Putin is a successful leader. Everybody else is thinking that well, just, you know, shallow, insignificant guy and he has failed nearly in everything. So people are going to vote for Putin because they dont see a viable alternative.
03:36 Wealthy Moscow shops and people
MUSIC 04:06
Campbell: : The alternative they can see is the legacy of Yeltsin. His Western-inspired policies created an astonishingly unequal society. While 37 million Russians live below the poverty line, Moscow has become a boomtown of luxury stores and designer shoppers. The huge wealth is enjoyed by a tiny minority, grown rich through the fire sale of State assets to Kremlin-connected tycoons. And the blame for the mess has fallen most directly on pro-Western parties.
04:20 Duma
Campbell: : In Decembers parliamentary election, liberal parties were wiped out, failing to gain a single seat.
04:53 Yavlinsky in Duma
Grigory Yavlinsky heads the once influential democratic party, Yabloko
YavlinskySuper: Grigory Yavlinsky, Liberal Politician
YAVLINSKY: Our main responsibility is the criminal reforms in Russia. Criminal privatisation in middle of 90s, two wars in Chechnya, one war is still there,
05:07
Those people who were calling themselves liberal democratic forces failed completely. And that is the outcome of that. The problem is that these people never been liberal democratic forces but what happened to my party-- that we failed to explain to the voters that democracy can be real. They dont believe it any more.
05:24
Yeltsin with cabinet members
Campbell: : Against this, Vladimir Putin has made some modest strides. Hes reformed the tax system and reversed the countrys economic slide, thanks largely to the good fortune of rising oil prices.
05:49 Lilya
SHEVTSOVA: The society trusts Putin because Putin has stabilised the situation and at least Putin is paying wages and salaries, and this is very important for the Russian electorate.
06:03
Campbell: So its very low expectations, but hes meeting them?
SHEVTSOVA: Yes, low expectations and the question of apprehension. People are afraid that anybody new will change the situation for worse. And overall, President Putin is the president of hope. But we also know that hope is always the prerequisite for disappointment.
File vision video of soldiers raiding offices Campbell: : Putin has also made serious mistakes but the heavy hand of the State has ensured they are not widely seen. His first term saw a series of police raids and criminal investigations of Russias new media tycoons. The most prominent fled the country to escape tax and fraud charges.Their TV stations came under tight State control. Networks that were once critical of the Government often at their owners bidding, became strangely compliant.
06:37
Rybkin in office
Campbell: : Ivan Rybkin is a rival presidential candidate and close associate of exiled media magnate Boris Berezovsky.
07:14 Rybkin
RYBKIN: The main thing is, independent medias been destroyed -- freedom of speech has simply been trampled on -- all six TV channels are now under the control of Putin and his team. We have returned to the time of Leonid Brezhnev -- probably worse.
07:22 Sergei Brilyov
BRILYOV: Now, editorially you wont find censors in this newsroom no censorship per se. There are editorial approaches, but then you have to be loyal to your employer, which is normal.
07:41 Brilyov in studio
Campbell: : Sergei Brilyov is one of the leading presenters on Russias second State network, RTR. He acknowledges that coverage of Putin is more favourable than it was of Yeltsin, but denies the station has become a Kremlin mouthpiece.
07:55 Brilyov.Super:Sergei BrilyovPresenter
BRILYOV: Hes been a tremendously successful president -- so far. The coverage of him has been the coverage of so many breakthroughs. Seriously. Although I personally think that the power in this country, the power, the way the legislative or executive certainly deserves if not more criticism, then a tougher approach.
08:11 News coverage Chechnya
Campbell: : Putin certainly looks successful if you watch Russian news. Every week, Russian soldiers are killed in the ongoing war in Chechnya. While television is full of stories of the war in Iraq, Russias own casualties almost never rate a mention.
08:44 LilyaSuper: Lilya Shevtsova, Author Putins Russia
LILYA: It seems to me its the self-censorship on the part of journalists. They know that if they describe the carnage in Chechnya, if they describe the unpleasant things that are happening in Russia, they will hardly be invited to continue their job.
08:59 Campbell: : Former contenders for the presidency have decided its not worth even trying to compete.
09:14 Yavlinsky.Super:Grigory YavlinskyLiberal Politician
YAVLINSKY: Im not going to take part.
Campbell: Youre not going to vote even?
YAVLINSKY: No Im not going to take part. Im going to say there is no elections. This is not an election. This is a referendum about the support of Mr Putin.
09:20 Zyuganov walking through crowd
Campbell: : Even the Communist leader, Gennady Zyuganov, who almost won the presidency in 96, has pulled out of the race, nominating a deputy whos polling just five per cent.
09:37 Zhirinovsky in strip club
The most outspoken politician in Russia, the ultra-nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky, has also decided not to compete. Hes enjoying the good life while his bodyguard stands as the partys candidate to rule Russia.
09:50 Campaign ad
MALYASHKIN: The development of animal husbandry should be subsidised by the state.
10:06 Campbell: : Former boxer Oleg Malyashkin is expected to get less than one per cent of the vote. Theres a sense theyre all just going through the motions.
Candidates in dressing room
Once a week or so the candidates converge on a studio for a mandatory televised debate. But few bother to watch. The candidate everyone knows is going to win -- Vladimir Putin -- refuses to take part.
10:25 GLAZYEV: This is the most dirty campaign. Instead of political elections they want to have political show.
10:39 Mironov Super:Sergei Glazyev Motherland Party
Mr Putin had a good chance for the first time in the Russian history to make this elections justful and open. Unfortunately he didnt use this chance.
10:48 Campbell: : But Putin is there in spirit. The fifth candidate, Sergei Mironov, is a Kremlin plant. His role is to make sure the election can still go ahead if the other candidates pull out. He uses the airtime to praise Putin and attack Putins rivals.
11:02 Rybkin in London
One candidate who couldnt join the debates is Ivan Rybkin.
He was in London, recovering from what he claimed was a kidnapping. On February 5th he disappeared for five days, later declaring he had been drugged and then videoed in a compromising position.
RYBKIN: I dont know who did it but I know who profits from it. Whos profiting is above all the people surrounding Putin. Not only people in power around Putin, but businesspeople around Putin who surround him so tightly and for whom Vladimir Putin works.
11:41 Campbell: : Last Friday, Rybkin pulled out of the race.
12:01 Rybkin with Yeltsin
Rybkin was once a key Kremlin official, serving as national security adviser to Boris Yeltsin. Russian media ridiculed his kidnapping claims. But the Kremlin has been linked to dirty tricks in the recent past.
Skuratov video ex 2000 FCP story Who is Vladimir Putin
In 1999, the prosecutor-general Yuri Skuratov was secretly videotaped with two prostitutes while his office was investigating Kremlin corruption. The tape mysteriously made its way to State television.
YAVLINSKY: If these people would consider that thats important for the State for this other reason then there is no limit.
12:18 Grigory Yavlinsky
They think that is the way to protect the State.
12:48 Putin entering auditorium, addressing crowd
Campbell: : Putin has maintained a statesman-like aloofness from the political fray, declining to use free airtime for campaign advertisements.He can afford not to. When he addressed his campaign workers last month -- along with 600 journalists flown in from around the country -- State TV broadcast the whole speech live.
12:54 PUTIN: Today we feel that the time of uncertainty and warring expectations is behind us. A new period has arrived, a period in which we can create conditions for a fundamental improvement in the quality of lives.
13:14 Wreath laying ceremony
MUSIC SOVIET ANTHEM
Putin laying wreath
Campbell: : Putin will begin his second term as the most powerful Kremlin ruler in decades, with a compliant State media, a loyal parliament and an overwhelming, if grudging, mandate.His re-election will mark the beginning of a new political epoch free of the shadow of Boris Yeltsins turbulent reign. It may also mark the end of Russias brief and strange experiment with liberal democracy.
13:33
Credits:Reporter: Eric Campbell
Camera: Mark SladeEditors: Mark Douglas, Simon Brynjolffssen
March 2004 1333
Intro (written BEFORE the election:
He has no real rivals and couldnt lose if he tried. As President Vladimir Putin faces elections for a second four- year term, Russians are wondering whatever happened to the promise of democracy?
Foreign Correspondents, Eric Campbell searches for any trace of a campaign trail, as Russia prepares to give President Putin the political endorsement that other world leaders might envy.
Its not that his people think hes doing a brilliant job, but theres simply no political competition said Eric.
Mr Putin is guaranteed to win next week with as much as 80 per cent of the vote. The leaders of other parties arent even bothering to stand.
Russias leader is a KGB spy whos filled his administration with the old guard- generals, police chiefs and spooks. Hes even reinstated the Soviet national anthem.
Parliamentary elections have delivered President Putin a rubber stamp government. Russians are watching Vladmir Putin amass the kind of authority wielded by his communist era predecessors.
In Moscow life has improved, said Eric. The capital is a boomtown, full of luxury stores and designer shops.
But people in the country were hit hard by the end of Communism as factories and collective farms went bankrupt.
Eric investigates how a compliant media is supporting the President at the cost of his political rivals, and how business elite is supporting is flourishing under his administration.
Remarks anti corruption party leader Grigory Yavlinsky: This is not an election. This is a referendum about the support of Mr Putin.
TV studio control room MUSIC 00:00
Clips of news reports
Campbell: Imagine a country where the nightly news was your nations leader and the weather. Imagine if television portrayed your nations leader as a hero among men. Imagine if the only news about him was good. Welcome to Putins Russia.
00:12 MUSIC 00:33
Putin watching launch Whether its braving Arctic cold to watch a rocket launch or mixing it with Russias fighting men Or plunging to the ocean depths on a nuclear submarine President Putin is always the biggest story.
00:42 Priests ringing bells Church bells 01:08
In most of Russia, democracy is a dirty word.Zvenigorad -- meaning the town that rings -- is just a 40-minute drive from Moscow. But it has seen few benefits from more than a decade of Western-inspired reform.
01:16 Abandoned cowshed
Its Soviet-era factories and collective farms are bankrupt and abandoned.
01:33 Valentina and Vasily walking to shed
Valentina Fomina was once a proud tractor driver for a cattle collective. Now she and her husband Vasily cant even afford to feed themselves. This cow is the only thing that keeps them going.
01:40 Milking cow
VALENTINA: Under the Soviets we lived better than we live today.
01:53 Valentina and Vasily
Its very difficult. The pension is far too small.
VASILY: You know, one wants this or that.
VALENTINA: The price of bread goes up every day. Yesterday, 10 roubles a loaf -- today 40 kopeks more. Everything is getting more expensive.
VASILY: Its hard, its difficult
01:57 Vasily loading hay
Campbell: : And they blame politicians for their troubles, including Putin.
02:14 Valentina and Vasily
VALENTINA: It was Yeltsin who stirred up this mess. Well, it was Gorbachev who started it and then Yeltsin finished it up and now Putin. Will he be able to sort it up in four years? Surely not. He follows Yeltsin footsteps.
VASILY: Everything is expensive what can we do?
02:19 People in town
Campbell: : But like almost everyone here, Vasily and Valentina plan to vote for Putin not because they particularly like him, but because they dont see any alternative.
02:39 Valentina and Vasily
VASILY: Ill go for Putin, who else?
VALENTINA: Let Putin finish it hell help us out, or there will be more mess. Look, everything has been done already!
Soldiers marching
Campbell: : It is just four and half years since Putin emerged from the bureaucratic shadows as Boris Yeltsins handpicked successor. A former KGB spy, he has played up to Russians nostalgia for Soviet greatness. He has filled the Kremlin with generals, police chiefs and spooks. But for all the appearance of authority, he is seen by many if not most as the lesser of evils.
03:01 LilyaSuper: Lilya Shevtsova, Author Putins Russia
LILYA SHEVTSOVA: You know 78 per cent of Russians are going to vote for their incumbent president. But at the same time, only 15 per cent of those who are coming to the polls and are going to support Putin, only 15 percent are quite sure that Putin is a successful leader. Everybody else is thinking that well, just, you know, shallow, insignificant guy and he has failed nearly in everything. So people are going to vote for Putin because they dont see a viable alternative.
03:36 Wealthy Moscow shops and people
MUSIC 04:06
Campbell: : The alternative they can see is the legacy of Yeltsin. His Western-inspired policies created an astonishingly unequal society. While 37 million Russians live below the poverty line, Moscow has become a boomtown of luxury stores and designer shoppers. The huge wealth is enjoyed by a tiny minority, grown rich through the fire sale of State assets to Kremlin-connected tycoons. And the blame for the mess has fallen most directly on pro-Western parties.
04:20 Duma
Campbell: : In Decembers parliamentary election, liberal parties were wiped out, failing to gain a single seat.
04:53 Yavlinsky in Duma
Grigory Yavlinsky heads the once influential democratic party, Yabloko
YavlinskySuper: Grigory Yavlinsky, Liberal Politician
YAVLINSKY: Our main responsibility is the criminal reforms in Russia. Criminal privatisation in middle of 90s, two wars in Chechnya, one war is still there,
05:07
Those people who were calling themselves liberal democratic forces failed completely. And that is the outcome of that. The problem is that these people never been liberal democratic forces but what happened to my party-- that we failed to explain to the voters that democracy can be real. They dont believe it any more.
05:24
Yeltsin with cabinet members
Campbell: : Against this, Vladimir Putin has made some modest strides. Hes reformed the tax system and reversed the countrys economic slide, thanks largely to the good fortune of rising oil prices.
05:49 Lilya
SHEVTSOVA: The society trusts Putin because Putin has stabilised the situation and at least Putin is paying wages and salaries, and this is very important for the Russian electorate.
06:03
Campbell: So its very low expectations, but hes meeting them?
SHEVTSOVA: Yes, low expectations and the question of apprehension. People are afraid that anybody new will change the situation for worse. And overall, President Putin is the president of hope. But we also know that hope is always the prerequisite for disappointment.
File vision video of soldiers raiding offices Campbell: : Putin has also made serious mistakes but the heavy hand of the State has ensured they are not widely seen. His first term saw a series of police raids and criminal investigations of Russias new media tycoons. The most prominent fled the country to escape tax and fraud charges.Their TV stations came under tight State control. Networks that were once critical of the Government often at their owners bidding, became strangely compliant.
06:37
Rybkin in office
Campbell: : Ivan Rybkin is a rival presidential candidate and close associate of exiled media magnate Boris Berezovsky.
07:14 Rybkin
RYBKIN: The main thing is, independent medias been destroyed -- freedom of speech has simply been trampled on -- all six TV channels are now under the control of Putin and his team. We have returned to the time of Leonid Brezhnev -- probably worse.
07:22 Sergei Brilyov
BRILYOV: Now, editorially you wont find censors in this newsroom no censorship per se. There are editorial approaches, but then you have to be loyal to your employer, which is normal.
07:41 Brilyov in studio
Campbell: : Sergei Brilyov is one of the leading presenters on Russias second State network, RTR. He acknowledges that coverage of Putin is more favourable than it was of Yeltsin, but denies the station has become a Kremlin mouthpiece.
07:55 Brilyov.Super:Sergei BrilyovPresenter
BRILYOV: Hes been a tremendously successful president -- so far. The coverage of him has been the coverage of so many breakthroughs. Seriously. Although I personally think that the power in this country, the power, the way the legislative or executive certainly deserves if not more criticism, then a tougher approach.
08:11 News coverage Chechnya
Campbell: : Putin certainly looks successful if you watch Russian news. Every week, Russian soldiers are killed in the ongoing war in Chechnya. While television is full of stories of the war in Iraq, Russias own casualties almost never rate a mention.
08:44 LilyaSuper: Lilya Shevtsova, Author Putins Russia
LILYA: It seems to me its the self-censorship on the part of journalists. They know that if they describe the carnage in Chechnya, if they describe the unpleasant things that are happening in Russia, they will hardly be invited to continue their job.
08:59 Campbell: : Former contenders for the presidency have decided its not worth even trying to compete.
09:14 Yavlinsky.Super:Grigory YavlinskyLiberal Politician
YAVLINSKY: Im not going to take part.
Campbell: Youre not going to vote even?
YAVLINSKY: No Im not going to take part. Im going to say there is no elections. This is not an election. This is a referendum about the support of Mr Putin.
09:20 Zyuganov walking through crowd
Campbell: : Even the Communist leader, Gennady Zyuganov, who almost won the presidency in 96, has pulled out of the race, nominating a deputy whos polling just five per cent.
09:37 Zhirinovsky in strip club
The most outspoken politician in Russia, the ultra-nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky, has also decided not to compete. Hes enjoying the good life while his bodyguard stands as the partys candidate to rule Russia.
09:50 Campaign ad
MALYASHKIN: The development of animal husbandry should be subsidised by the state.
10:06 Campbell: : Former boxer Oleg Malyashkin is expected to get less than one per cent of the vote. Theres a sense theyre all just going through the motions.
Candidates in dressing room
Once a week or so the candidates converge on a studio for a mandatory televised debate. But few bother to watch. The candidate everyone knows is going to win -- Vladimir Putin -- refuses to take part.
10:25 GLAZYEV: This is the most dirty campaign. Instead of political elections they want to have political show.
10:39 Mironov Super:Sergei Glazyev Motherland Party
Mr Putin had a good chance for the first time in the Russian history to make this elections justful and open. Unfortunately he didnt use this chance.
10:48 Campbell: : But Putin is there in spirit. The fifth candidate, Sergei Mironov, is a Kremlin plant. His role is to make sure the election can still go ahead if the other candidates pull out. He uses the airtime to praise Putin and attack Putins rivals.
11:02 Rybkin in London
One candidate who couldnt join the debates is Ivan Rybkin.
He was in London, recovering from what he claimed was a kidnapping. On February 5th he disappeared for five days, later declaring he had been drugged and then videoed in a compromising position.
RYBKIN: I dont know who did it but I know who profits from it. Whos profiting is above all the people surrounding Putin. Not only people in power around Putin, but businesspeople around Putin who surround him so tightly and for whom Vladimir Putin works.
11:41 Campbell: : Last Friday, Rybkin pulled out of the race.
12:01 Rybkin with Yeltsin
Rybkin was once a key Kremlin official, serving as national security adviser to Boris Yeltsin. Russian media ridiculed his kidnapping claims. But the Kremlin has been linked to dirty tricks in the recent past.
Skuratov video ex 2000 FCP story Who is Vladimir Putin
In 1999, the prosecutor-general Yuri Skuratov was secretly videotaped with two prostitutes while his office was investigating Kremlin corruption. The tape mysteriously made its way to State television.
YAVLINSKY: If these people would consider that thats important for the State for this other reason then there is no limit.
12:18 Grigory Yavlinsky
They think that is the way to protect the State.
12:48 Putin entering auditorium, addressing crowd
Campbell: : Putin has maintained a statesman-like aloofness from the political fray, declining to use free airtime for campaign advertisements.He can afford not to. When he addressed his campaign workers last month -- along with 600 journalists flown in from around the country -- State TV broadcast the whole speech live.
12:54 PUTIN: Today we feel that the time of uncertainty and warring expectations is behind us. A new period has arrived, a period in which we can create conditions for a fundamental improvement in the quality of lives.
13:14 Wreath laying ceremony
MUSIC SOVIET ANTHEM
Putin laying wreath
Campbell: : Putin will begin his second term as the most powerful Kremlin ruler in decades, with a compliant State media, a loyal parliament and an overwhelming, if grudging, mandate.His re-election will mark the beginning of a new political epoch free of the shadow of Boris Yeltsins turbulent reign. It may also mark the end of Russias brief and strange experiment with liberal democracy.
13:33
Credits:Reporter: Eric Campbell
Camera: Mark SladeEditors: Mark Douglas, Simon Brynjolffssen