As the Kremlin increasingly isolates itself on the world stage, the casualties keep piling up: The Moscow Times, Russia's English-language newspaper of 23 years, is dying as an outlet of independent journalism, many journalists are now saying.
Founded by Dutch publisher Derk Sauer in 1992, the newspaper played an integral role in defeating censorship in the early 1990s and has produced some top names in the journalism world, including Ellen Barry of The New York Times, Simon Ostrovsky of VICE News, Brian Whitmore of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and many others.
In recent years, as numerous independent news sources were taken over or toppled by Kremlin-friendly forces, The Moscow Times stood out as one of the remaining sources for critical coverage.
But the death watch has begun, as chief editor Nabi Abdullaev steps down amid new ownership and a drastically different format.
“Another good editor gone, and (it’s) the end of the newspaper I co-founded. Sad,” Sauer wrote on Twitter on hearing the news.
Barry, who worked at the paper in its heyday in the early 1990s, said the paper had “epitomized the free spaces that were expanding in Russia” after the fall of the Soviet Union.
The paper continued in that vein when she returned 13 years later to work for the New York Times, she said, and “foreign correspondents depended heavily on the Moscow Times, in predatory fashion, to discover under-reported stories and follow them doggedly, like beat reporters. The work of Moscow Times reporters has informed two decades of foreign correspondence on Russia,” she said. “While Russia clearly does not need foreigners to report the news, reporters do need a guarantee of independence. The Moscow Times is one place that has given it to them. I hope that Demyan will fight for it.”
BuzzFeed writer Max Seddon, a former reporter for The Moscow Times, also tweeted a lament for the end of the newspaper. “I wouldn’t have become a journalist if not for The Moscow Times. Hard to see where the next generation of Russian reporters comes from now,” Seddon wrote.
One very noticeable sign of major changes to come is that the newspaper is to cease publishing Monday through Friday in print, and become a weekly on Nov. 1 – and this in a city of nearly 12 million people.
The cutbacks prompted several staff members to quit after they expressed skepticism about the newspaper’s downsizing. While the newspaper’s website will continue to churn out stories on a daily basis, some staff writers at the paper say they fear the content will be “dumbed down.”
Abdullaev’s resignation comes not only as the newspaper announces its new format, but also just a few months after new owner Demyan Kudryavtsev took over. Kudryavtsev is the first Russian owner of a paper that has traditionally been foreign-owned.
Kudryavtsev, a former chief executive at Kommersant, holds 100 percent of the organization after buying it from Sanoma Independent Media, a Finnish media holding with a large presence in Russia. The shake-up came after President Vladimir Putin signed a bill last fall limiting foreign ownership in any Russian media assets to 20 percent – a move that many saw as the death knell for both foreign investment and foreign media in Russia, as the country seemed to become increasingly isolated.
Ostrovsky, in a comment on his Facebook page on Oct. 28, said the latest turbulence at the paper was enabled by Russia’s “new xenophobic media legislation.”
Staff writers at the Moscow Times who spoke to the Kyiv Post on condition of anonymity, out of fear of backlash from the new ownership, said they had little trust in Kudryavtsev.
His treatment of editors is “really depressing,” said one writer. “He has a plan to re-do the paper, which might work, but he’s clearly just plucked it out of nowhere. And he is unbelievably arrogant – repulsively arrogant. He made it clear he does not give a damn for anyone at the paper, or anyone with experience.”
At a staff meeting earlier this week, he said, Kudryavtsev made a series of alarming comments about his plans, including: “The newspaper won’t be about news” and “democracy is a wonderful process but much slower than other processes.”
He also admitted that he’d only purchased The Moscow Times because it was part of a deal to buy Russian-language newspaper Vedomosti, writers said.
Despite all the hulabulloo about Abdullaev’s exit, and speculation that he was involved in some dramatic showdown with Kudryavstev, Abdullaev didn’t seem too fazed about the latest developments in comments to the Kyiv Post.
“I have no problems with the new product – I was part of the team who designed it,” Abdullaev said, noting that the shift from daily to weekly wouldn’t have as big of an impact as some are predicting, since the website would operate as usual.
“The print will go from daily to weekly, and will not be about the news but analysis, opinions and feature articles. To me, it looks like a normal format that allows for decent journalism,” he said.
He chose to step down, he said, because the new plans didn’t give him as significant a role as he would have liked.
Staff writers said the shake-up was a result of a “disagreement over how power is distributed.”
Kudryavtsev, for his part, was not surprised by the outcry over the changes at the paper, saying it was only natural for people to be concerned during major changes. “But this is not a political thing,” he said. “I don’t care if the content criticizes Putin or Ukraine or whatever. I am more concerned with its format, layout, distribution.”
“The point is this paper was going to be shut down. The previous owner had planned to close it. They closed down the St. Petersburg Times, and they were about to shut down the Moscow Times. They told me this. It was loss-making for years, so as it was, it wasn’t very in-demand by readers. … I spent my own money so that this paper would not be shut down,” he said.
As for recent staff resignations, Kudryavtsev said he was “surprised they didn’t leave long ago,” noting that the uncertainty surrounding the paper’s fate was enough to make anyone look for a new job.
Several staff members who planned to stay at the paper said they were getting irritated with how quickly people were willing to give up on them.
“Those who are lamenting the demise of their favorite journalism school are hastening its death by lamenting it prematurely. Give us a chance. If people want to see the MT survive, they need to stop acting like it’s already dead,” one reporter said.
Media expert Vasily Gatov said “apocalyptic views” on the newspaper were unwarranted.
“The Moscow Times is not finished, it just needs a new start that is coherent with the period of history Russia is going through,” said Gatov. “Papers die. Magazines die. And they resurrect.”
Kyiv Post staff writer Allison Quinn can be reached at [email protected]
