Ethics

Putin Erases Political Opponents

By Ed Brayton

Here's a disturbing story about Putin's growing totalitarianism in Russia:

On a talk show last autumn, a prominent political analyst named Mikhail Delyagin offered some tart words about Vladimir Putin. When the program was televised, Delyagin was not.

His remarks were cut and he was digitally erased from the show, like a disgraced comrade airbrushed from an old Soviet photo. (The technicians may have worked a bit hastily; they left his disembodied legs in one shot.)

Delyagin, it turned out, has for some time resided on the so-called stop list, a roster of political opponents and other critics of the government who have been barred from television news and political talk shows by the Kremlin.

But don't worry. Bush says he's looked into Putin's "heart and soul" and found him to be a good man.

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on June 07, 2008 (boomark / email).