A Bear's Tale Makes Russian Media's Fur Fly Business and Government Use the Power of Purse to Gag the Media

Beginning of article

The ties that bind politics, big business, and the press in Russia are uncomfortably tight these days.

One recent tale of just how tight began with a brief hunting trip by Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin in the old style of Soviet officials.

Bulldozers cleared about 1-1/3 miles of road and a helicopter landing pad in the woods of the Yaroslavl region. Squadrons of bodyguards, police, federal security agents, a medical emergency team, a mobile dining room, and professional hunters prepared the way. Dogs flushed two cubs and a she-bear found in their winter cave, and the prime minister himself killed one of the cubs. When this story appeared in two Russian …