The scandal with NTV puts the authorities in an obviously losing position

The head of the Moscow bureau of Time magazine, Paul Quinn-Judge, is confident that the clumsy putsch of the Kremlin attacking NTV puts the government in an obviously losing position. “This is a very good example that speaks to the desires and limited capabilities of President Vladimir Putin,” he said in an interview with American journalist Tony Caron.

The president's main desire is to create a controlled society, says Paul Quinn-Judge. In his opinion, "an integral part of this desire is to gain control of electronic media, which, unlike most Russian newspapers, are truly national. Therefore, he has been undermining NTV all year, using all types of economic pressure and organizing judicial investigations in order to undermine the channel's independence and bring it under the control of people sympathetic to the Kremlin." As a result, by trying to make "an overtly authoritarian move, he revealed himself to be an inexperienced leader with an inexperienced team."

“There are serious doubts about the legality of Monday’s meeting,” the authoritative journalist emphasized. “The people who were appointed at this meeting to lead the new board of directors are real losers. Many talk about their dubious past, and the speaker of the lower house of parliament even called them “crooks.” To top it all off, the NTV-hating Communist Party is now opposed to the takeover because one of the leaders appointed by Putin, Boris Jordan, is an American. The president as “It’s as if he’s trying to find out how many sore spots he can step on at the same time. With one, not very strong blow, the Kremlin has ruined relations with a large number of different political forces.”

Regarding the investment of the international consortium led by Ted Turner, Paul Quinn-Judge said: "Turner's well-known dislike of Alfred Koch and Jordan is one of the factors undermining the government's position. The government understands that if he buys 45-49% of the shares of the channel, he will not want to work with these people, and this undermines their position even before he has bought anything. So if Turner buys the shares, NTV can be saved."

The recent rallies in defense of NTV, in the journalist’s opinion, are a problem for Putin, although not a very serious one. "He's still in a losing situation," says Quinn-Judge. "If he resorts to strong-arm policies to try to kill the channel, it will create a politically messy situation. If he doesn't, it will appear that he is unable to carry out his own threats. Putin is trying to simply deny that he is aware of what is happening at all, but in reality the standoff over NTV presents him with a serious political choice."