January 23, 2020

Governor in Russia threatens journalists to "waste them in the outhouse"

topic:	Good Governance
located:	Russia
editor:	Igor Serebryany

The journalists who publish critical reports about authorities should be "wasted in the outhouse".

This expression was first used by then-acting President Vladimir Putin in 2000. He referred it to the Chechen separatists. The expression immediately became proverbial in Russia.

This time, Putin's rude remark was used by Mikhail Ignatyev, head of Chuvash Republic, a small ethnic region on the Volga river. "The republic's economic and social problems have been due to such journalists who provoke public unrest with their reports", Ignatyev told the meeting of the regional press attended by some 200 journalists and officials.

His address caused bewilderment even in the ruling United Russia party. Its deputy Secretary-General Eugeny Revenko called on Mikhail Ignatyev to make apologies to the media workers.

"The governor must work in public space in a way that doesn't give an excuse to speculate even to the most vocal critics", Revenko said. There are 89 mass media outlets officially registered in Chuvash republic.

When asked to verify Ignatyev's words, his spokesman Oleg Sidorov insisted the governor's remarks had been "misunderstood and distorted" by, yes, the mass media.

"Mr Ignatyev called to take actions not against the journalists but against opposition bloggers who deliberately discredit the work of Chuvash administration and Russian authorities as a whole", he explained.

According to Sidorov, his boss was enraged by behaviour of the particular "provocateur".

"Last year, a certain person arrived in Cheboksary (the capital of Chuvash republic - FP). He represented himself as a priest and offered to consecrate the building of the republic's administration. We agreed and he had conducted the ceremony which was being videotaped. Shortly after his departure, the video was broadcast by one of the opposition TV channels with the comment: 'Here's the exorcist ceremony to drive out of demons of corruption from Chuvash administration'," Smirnov says.

Sidorov insists that no one among the local journalists took to heart the governor's humiliating remarks.

"The scandal has been steered by the Pravda opposition publication. We are going to send the recording of Ignatyev's speech to Moscow to clear him from those accusations", he promises. Sidorov adds that following last year's "provocation" the fake priest escaped to Moscow to join the staff of the opposition politician Alexei Navalny.

The Pravda newspaper office did not return the call made to verify Sidorov's version. But Eugeny Revenko of the United Russia, reached by phone, says he does not need any explanations from Cheboksary at all. "I have still received no explanations or verifications from Chuvash authorities. And I didn't ask them as I don't need them. What I still demand is that Ignatyev would make an apology to the journalists' community for his abusive remarks", he says.

Chuvash governor is notorious for his controversial remarks. Last week, he called "faked and contrived" the reports that Chuvash athletes were caught using doping - the fact admitted by the wrongdoers themselves.

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