Thief steals dream of free press paper in Russia

March 13, 2005

Guest colum/Lou Major Sr.

The recent meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and President George W. Bush brings back vivid memories of an attempt I made 13 years ago to bring about a free press in Russia.

Through an organization known as International Peace Through Culture, my company, Wick Communications, sent me and one of our publishers, Fran McLean from Oregon, to Russia to pursue the endeavor. We went to the city of Voronezh, a 12-hour train ride south of Moscow, in the dead of winter and found out what a frigid Russian winter could be. The welcome was warm, however, as Fran and I held many meetings with young journalists eager to find out what freedom of the press was all about.

A little progress was being made back then in 1992, but there was no Vladimir Putin around. What progress there had been has been erased under the regime of Putin. Press freedom is now only a dream for journalists who work under the ever-watchful eye of Russian bureaucrats and former KGB henchmen. President Bush's meeting with Putin made no headway toward bringing about any further democratization of Russia. Putin's former KGB ties are stronger than ever.

I asked Fran recently if he had any particular vivid memories himself about our time spent in Russia.

He wrote, in part, "As we headed for the (train) station and our 12-hour overnight train ride back to Moscow (from Voronezh on our way home), it was difficult to leave. In Russia, sadness and tears are a natural part of leaving new friends form far off lands."

Fran also recalled our bringing three Russian men over here to the United States for visits to Oregon and Arizona as we continued to talk about some kind of joint venture whereby our company and a small group of Russians in Voronezh would have a newspaper press and own the Voronezh Courier. We even got to the point that we had a joint venture proposal drawn up. The Russians and I signed the proposal as an "agreement in principle" and after they returned to Russia, I continued to work toward some kind of agreement.

As weeks passed, however, it became ever more clear that an American newspaper company trying to establish a totally free press newspaper in Russia was still more a dream than a reality. The editor of the paper was a man named Valery Popov. Fran and I spent a lot of time with him and even had dinner at his highrise flat with him, his wife and two daughters. He had assembled a very bright group of young journalists, most of them in their twenties, who were eager beyond belief to learn about newspapers as they were operated in America.

Fran remembered, when the Russians were having a gourmet country breakfast in Oregon, Popov ate very little. He said he felt guilty because his family back home could not be with him and us enjoying the meal and friendship.

At the time, it was heart-warming. When it became evident my company would not be able to put together a successful joint venture, we still wanted to assist them in their work. We bought and shipped to Voronezh a number of computers and electronic supplies for their use at The Courier. It was several months later that I learned by letter that Popov had taken the equipment and left the young journalists without it. He had taken it as his own.

That was the only real disappointment that we suffered from the effort. Fran and I both felt strongly, as did our company, that we needed to make the effort. Our time there was one of those once-in-a-lifetime events. We met so many wonderful people who reached out to us, as we did to them.

We saw a country which had stood still in time, with a crumbled infrastructure and poverty that was hard to believe. Russia's all had gone to the military for countless numbers of years, while the population suffered under Communist rule. And today, there is the question - are the people any better off than before? Some yes, most no. As Putin's grip on the country has become like a steel vise, a better way of life for the ordinary people has not become a reality.

Upon returning from that, my second trip to Russia, I remember saying, "Life in Russia will never resemble what we have in America. The entire infrastructure of the country is in ruins."

But it also brought to mind what a beautiful young Russian woman had said, in a farewell toast to us as we prepared to leave Voronezh: "Russia was, is, and always will be."

To be sure.

But what kind of Russia?