Isolation Block

The Moscow Times has a bleak warning from Timur Aliev, editor of Chechen Society, about the new bill, currently on its way through the Russian State Duma, amending the law about exit from and entrance into the Russian Federation:

The amendments give grounds for canceling visas and rejecting visa applications. While some are fairly reasonable, the new version of the law gives the government the ability to refuse visas to foreigners who "act in a disrespectful way toward federal organs and state symbols" or toward "generally accepted Russian values." In addition, visas can be canceled if a foreigner does something that "harms the international prestige" of Russia.

As Aliev points out,

the bill could easily be transformed into a means of censorship. Any foreign journalist or activist who writes or says something about Russia that contradicts the government's line could be kicked out of the country, never to return. In order to avoid something along these lines, foreigners will begin to watch what they say and censor themselves.

The law on exit and entrance in effect supplements the law on declaring a state of terrorist emergency passed by the Duma in December. Declaring a terrorism-related state of emergency would mean that journalists would be able to have access to and publish information about terrorist attacks only with permission from those directing counterterrorist operations. This will allow authorities to control the Russian media to the same extent that the visa law will allow it to control foreign journalists.

Aliev suggests that the amendments to the law, based on "anti-terrorist" measures, will be used to impose an information blockade, especially on Chechnya:

The information blockade around Chechnya is apparently the test run for this method. Starting July 1, foreign journalists will have to have permission from the Foreign Ministry to work in Chechnya, while Russian correspondents will need permission from the Interior Ministry. Naturally, the road will be closed to the disloyal. The Chechen media will be forced to engage in a large amount of self-censorship. Newspapers that push the envelope will be repressed. The authorities have already begun their campaign against media outlets deemed unacceptable to Moscow.

Chechen Society, of which I am the editor, is no exception. It has already received an official warning from the local branch of the Press and Culture Ministry in Chechnya. After the third warning, officials can legally shut down the paper. I have also been called into three different security organizations to answer for our paper's viewpoints. The local state prosecutor, the Directorate to Combat Organized Crime, and the FSB have all investigated our paper.

During one visit, the colonel told me directly that he had been given orders to close the paper. Pointing to one of our articles, he said, "Young people are taking up arms and going to fight because you write this kind of stuff." The article was about a young man who had been taken from his home during a cleanup operation and later died in custody after being beaten.

And, he concludes:

Of course, implementing these so-called anti-terrorist laws will not throw up a new iron curtain around Russia right away. Russian citizens can still leave the country. Yet all the necessary preconditions for isolating Russia from the rest of the world are there, waiting to be implemented.