Carthage must be cleared

It's funny: the day of the widely announced state privatization of NTV coincided with Putin's historic speech before the Federal Assembly. For the Russian authorities - a double holiday. Rejoicing in a square, in a square a target: freedom. We won't interfere. Let's think.

What will it be - Russia without NTV?

It will be a country created for happiness. Let's rejoice for the people waking up and going to bed to the sounds of a cheerful Stalinist march, which will already sound on this TV channel. For the army, which is undergoing a daily revival in the nearby Chechnya. For the valiant organs that clearly report their spy catches. For everyone who is drowning in the sea: they will now be rescued and buried strictly according to the schedule, without unnecessary noise and spiteful tears ... For the president: now he will not be late anywhere and will always be everywhere. We will see all this on a TV picture under a familiar screensaver and learn from unfamiliar (or too familiar, but not previously seen on the fourth button) announcers, TV presenters, political observers and other masters of culture.

We say goodbye to Shenderovich, Sorokina, Osokin, Mitkova. Taking off our hat, let us mournfully wave after the one who was for ourselves the spiritual image of Russia. Let's get ready for Leontiev-Pavlovsky-Sokolov.

Is "another alternative" possible, as they used to say in perestroika times?

In essence, why not. The sheer obscenity of the war that a nuclear power has declared to television people is obvious to the whole world. The debts that the swindler Gusinsky does not want to pay to Koch the righteous are talk for the poor and gullible. It's not about who doesn't pay whom. The goal set before our independent prosecutors was that the owner of the holding could not and did not have time to pay. And so that neither Soros nor Turner had time to agree and could not.

Is it still necessary to remind how the case of the “swindler” developed in Russia? About "newly discovered circumstances" that opened and closed in strict accordance with the behavior of the suspect? About the sixth protocol, signed on behalf of the state by Minister Lesin? About this legality of ours, where, in the words of a living classic from NTV, Koni did not lie ...

In short, there is awkwardness. And rallies in Moscow are already gathering thousands of unfinished liberals, forgotten since 1993, and the most unenthusiastic speeches are heard from the stands, and Western observers shrug their shoulders contritely. There is evidence that in the presidential administration, vigilantly monitoring the ratings of the heir, these atmospheric phenomena are observed with alarm. However, the bankruptcy of NTV, like a lump from a mountain, is already rolling almost unstoppably. And the calculated benefits, apparently, are still greater than the expected losses.

Again, the key word is rating.

The potential of people's fearful love for the president is still great, but not infinite. At the same time, there is much less money in a country created for happiness than popular love. Against the backdrop of upcoming payments to the Paris Club, a divorce from the IMF, oil prices ready to collapse, the endless Chechen war, which is less and less popular among the people and among the elites, the authorities simply cannot come to terms with the existence of an independent television channel. To allow unvarnished life to nestle in a picture addressed to millions. The president's time is shrinking: agitation-propaganda is becoming the most important of all arts. Under these conditions, bold newspapers and equidistant sites, which the serfs of the collective farm named after. Putin rarely devote their leisure time, you can still allow it. You can't leave NTV. Carthage must be cleared.

That, as far as I can judge, is the President's message to a subdued country. Its purpose, meaning and pathos. The text may not be read.