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Yakovlev Said to Thwart Coup Attempt Is this to be a stable spring in Moscow with a “civil peace” or a time of continued unrest? And what role will broadcasting and the media in general play? The dramatic news was that Aleksander Yakovlev, hero of Glasnost, head of the Federal Television and Radio Service, added a mythic laurel to his already distinguished head in March: he is supposed to have rescued President Yeltsin from yet another coup attempt, a coup to be signaled through a program that would air on Ostankino March 10. According to Obschchaya Gazeta, Yuri Skokov was to appear on television that day to declare Yeltsin’s unfitness for office, showing a film of the President in an embarrassing light. The video would lead to a Parliamentary transfer of power to Viktor Chernomyrdin. Yakovlev intervened and, indeed, according to news reports, turned the matter over to the President’s office. Whether this all occurred, and what to do about it, is under investigation. On the other hand, much of the news was about a move for “civil peace,” to be incorporated in a document, to be signed, among others, by the warring parties of President, government, and Parliament, signifying a temporary unity that would have important implications for state television. According to Ekho Moskvy radio, the document would “unite all political movements” because “the time of confrontation has passed and Russia is now embarking on a new path.” Interestingly, at the meeting proposing the accord not only Premier Chernomyrdin was present, as well as the patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, but also the heads of Russian State Television and Ostankino. Presumably, they would be adherents, at the least, to the spirit of civil peace. Indeed, among the statements in favor of “civic peace,” was an important one by Yakovlev: he declared, in a voice that might have sounded ominous to some, that the Russian press would have a substantial role in implementing the hoped-for accord. There was something of the language of the old regime in Yakovlev’s account. “If somebody thinks social accord in the country to be disadvantageous to him and does not back the memorandum, in doing so, this person will show his real political worth; and citizens will see clearly who opposes accord, who stirs up hatred and engineers conflicts.” As part of the effort to end discord, on 9 March, President Boris Yeltsin reaffirmed that Ostankino and Rossiskaya Television should both remain state-owned, and that they should also be suitably financed. |
Last Updated: 11/20/99 |
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© 1999 Post-Soviet Media Law &
Policy Newsletter |
