The Art of Flattering

Nothing brings business competitors closer together than a common love for the Kremlin.

I came to that conclusion after reading congratulations printed in Kommersant on May 31 in honor of the 50th birthday of presidential administration deputy chief of staff Alexei Gromov, who is responsible for the Kremlin’s relations with the media. The message was signed by Channel One general director Konstantin Ernst, VGTRK chairman Oleg Dobrodeyev and NTV general director Vladimir Kulistikov — that is, by the directors of the country’s top three broadcasting companies that are locked in a constant ratings battle.

They addressed Gromov with these words: “You have managed to do what your numerous predecessors could not: to liaise between the authorities and the media, to find the exact role for the government vis-a-vis the media and to teach those in power to treat journalists without prejudice. … Your tact, benevolence and brilliance are unprecedented … ”?  ? 

I don’t know whether Gromov shed tears of joy or whether he blushed in shame at the obsequious flattery. This was the first time an entire group signed a congratulatory text in Kommersant. Individuals usually congratulate each other. But because I have trouble believing that this unabashed display of bootlicking was motivated solely by a fawning adoration for authority, I am trying to find some pragmatic motivations behind it.

For example, I discovered that on the same day, May 31, Vedomosti published an article reporting that this week the State Duma is prepared to pass a bill in a second reading designed “to protect children from information that is harmful to their health and development.” In particular, it would prohibit broadcasting from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. of any incidents, accidents, catastrophes, illnesses or deaths “depicting their effects in a realistic way that could induce fear, horror or panic in children.” This is the very “moral censorship” that opinion polls show most Russians have been dreaming of for years.

If this law comes into force, even the puritanical Channel One and the channels belonging to VGTRK, or the All-Russia State Television and Radio Company, which are fairly restrained regarding blood-and-guts programming, will have to clean up their content. This says nothing of NTV, where a significant part of the programming includes the violent and morally depraved shows that the new law would prohibit.

I would venture to guess that professional solidarity united the directors of the rival channels and that the congratulatory text they penned is essentially a courageous appeal for press freedom.

On the very same day of May 31, it became known that the vote on the bill had been postponed indefinitely. Thus, all three signatories had good reason to raise their glasses high and toast “to continued camaraderie and cooperation.”

But it makes me wonder: If the leaders of United Russia, A Just Russia, the Communist Party and the Liberal Democratic Party had been clever enough to sign their own joint congratulatory letter to Gromov, would they have been given the green light to pass the bill they had labored together to create?