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International JournalismProtopopov, whom he disliked.A similar situation happened in theFar Eastern Maritime Territory(Primorye). RGTRK chairman MikhailShvydkoi sacked Boris Maksimenko,the General Director of the station’sVladivostok branch, and replaced himwith Valeri Bakshin. Maksimenko protestedthe move, claiming that his successorwould serve the interests of localGovernor Yevgeni Nazdratenko.Shvydkoi eventually decided to appointMaksimenko Chairman of the station,while Bakshin wouldremain in the job ofGeneral Director.Not surprisingly,this happened on theeve of the December1999 gubernatorial localelection whileNazdratenko was tryingto strengthen hisgrip over the local media.Although the regionis one of the poorest of the RussianFederation, Nazdratenko has beenasking the local parliament to providegreater subsidies to local newspapersand TV channels. His tactics are reminiscentof those applied under manyauthoritarian regimes. The regional authoritiesproduce numerous free leafletsfilled with weather forecasts andother politics-free information, mailthem directly to the residents, and subsidizethe entire information channels,thus diluting the effectiveness of theopposition’s message.Financing RegionalNewspapersUnfortunately, the local Russianmedia appear to be trapped in this newcircumstance. Alternative funding isextremely difficult to find and, for theregional media, the 1998 crisis hasdashed all hopes of financing theirown enterprises through advertising.As a survey by the Russian NationalPress Institute found, many advertisingcontracts that had already beenagreed to in the fall of 1998 were cancelledafter the financial crisis. In theimmediate aftermath of the crash, advertisingwas reduced by 30 to 50 percent.But the crisis also produced an unexpectedconsequence for the media.The newspapers found themselvesforced to adapt to the new economicenvironment. And this often meantplaying by the rules of the marketplace.Those that owned their ownpresses could delay an increase in pricewhile continuing to print from oldstocks of plates, films and ink. TheseThe financial crisis brought aboutanother difficulty for regionalnewspapers: No longer could they affordthe cost involved with maintaining accessto information.newspapers appear to have been ableto secure several contracts that theircompetitors could not.Another example reported by theRussian National Press Institute is alsovery instructive. The StavropolskieGubernskie Vedomosti (Stavropol RegionalNews) newspaper owns a barterretail store. Since 1995, this southernRussian publication has accepted barteredgoods in return for advertisingspace. Then these goods are resold inits store. This business tactic offers aninvaluable service in an economy wherecash is scarce. During the banking crisisof 1998, the StavropolskieGubernskie Vedomosti was able to offeradvertising space to the enterprisesthat were suffering from sudden moneyshortages and thus increased their ownvolume.The financial crisis brought aboutanother difficulty for regional newspapers:No longer could they afford thecost involved with maintaining accessto information. Most of them wereforced to cancel their connection tothe Internet and Russian and internationalnews services. They are nowfacing the risk of remaining uninformedabout what is going on outside theirregion.Not surprisingly, some of the newspaperowners advocate the creation ofa nationwide lobby group in order toobtain tax exemptions from the federalgovernment so they can increase theirability to circulate information amonglocal media and resist political pressurefrom the regional governors. Thismay seem like a utopian perspectivegiven the worsening economic situation,the end of small-scale industrialproduction, and the increasing dependencyon political patronage.But if the 1998crisis strengthened theregional oligarchies thatdeveloped around thegovernors, the localnewspapers, and the regionalindustrial giants,then this assertive reactionon the part of thelocal media seems to bethreatening their strongholdfor the first time since the collapseof the Soviet regime. Behind the politicalscene and its endless struggles forpower, Russia’s local media havelaunched a new struggle for independence.Should they continue to develophorizontal links among themselvesand transform their associationinto an influential lobby group, theywould challenge the arbitrariness ofthe state and eventually contribute tothe building of a civil society.■Virginie Coulloudon is directing theresearch project “The Elite andPatronage in Russia” at the DavisCenter for Russian Studies, HarvardUniversity. She lived in Moscow forseven years (1990-1996), where shewas permanent correspondent forseveral prominent French media,including the radio station Europe1, the newsmagazine Le Point, andthe quarterly journal PolitiqueInternationale. She is the author ofthree books, published in France, onSoviet society and is co-author of adocumentary filmed in Russia andin Uzbekistan.32 Nieman Reports / Fall 1999