Andrei Soldatov has been investigated, had criminal cases opened against him, and dealt with numerous threats to keep him from doing his job — here's what the Russian journalist has to say about Vladimir Putin and threats to the free press
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There are a lot of myths out there about how powerful Putin actually is.

While he’s seen as a sort of all-knowing, all-seeing evil villain in much of the Western media, if you talk to most people inside Russia, they think we’re giving him too much credit.

Nobody understands his power better than the people in Russia who are working, through many obstacles, to hold the powerful to account.

That’s why I sat down with Russian investigative journalist Andrei Soldatov at PutinCon, a conference organized by the Human Rights Foundation that was all about understanding Putin’s background and influence.

Soldatov has been a journalist in Russia for about 20 years, with a special focus on covering Russian security services and their work - everything from spy poisonings to surveillance. As a result of that, he’s been investigated several times, had criminal cases opened against him, had offices that he’s worked in searched, plus various other intimidation tactics to keep him from doing his work. This is what he has to say about Putin and threats to the free press in Russia.

Versha: What can you tell us about Putin's time in the KGB and then as head of the FSB, and how that might have influenced you know where he is today?

Soldatov: Well the problem is that if you train it into the KGB that give us a very special kind of mentality you first of all you see is a world in terms of threats. Every situation every crisis every development you see is a threat to you. That's why for instance the Internet itself was seen by Putin and his friends Munyon. If KGB background as a frat does the society into political stability and of course it's very bad for the development of this society because it means that. Putin himself he says he feels uncomfortable when people share information freely and uncensored. And the he wants to do something about it. And also the problem is that these people are by definition of extremely suspicious and that means a lot for a journalist. As I said I started my job numbers back in 1996 probably and back from Mumbai and that's why I was actually asked some questions and probably the answers were did that. What changed is that no many Kremlin officials. They if they ask some questions they immediately find back Verisk who ordered you who pay you to ask these question. They believe that everybody was part of some big conspiracy and that Maggs the Russian government kind of fortress completely impenetrable for all Frye's outsiders and that means that actually they're not very interested in journalism.

Versha: What is the difference between a state sponsored killing a state directed and ordered killing and something that certain agents may feel emboldened to do but they may not have gotten direct orders from the Kremlin or Putin himself. Do you feel like there's an important distinction there. Because there tends to be this theory that like Putin is behind every thing that happens there. [

Soldatov: And of course it can be that he's not Stalin. But the problem here is that many years ago the Kremlin adopted the very efficient tactics and outsourcing. That's a great thing if you need to deny your responsibility and you can the use of his fangs for doing manufacture from cyber attacks to attacks on your journalists to actual situations. And that was a day. It would mean that you can properly investigate this crime and that happens to many investigations of high profile assassinations in Russia. The problem here is about the Russian law. Is all this to go only to people who actually kill him and then to stop and said OK fine we follow these guys. And the question is a crime is solved and it's not because you need to find and to present a motive why these people who have nothing to do the evil. So for all Politkovskaya decided to kill them right. And that's the moments that Zelaya on the minds of every Russian investigation just stops. That's why outsourcing is so important it's crucial element of of the system.

#RussiaDesk #Russia #VladimirPutin #Putin

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