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A year ago, Freedom of Speech ended in Russia. The TV Critics Club even awarded the program with a special prize with the wording "For what it was." But already in September, “Freedom of Speech” with Savik Shuster will again appear on the air. True, in Ukraine ....

A year ago, Freedom of Speech ended in Russia. The TV Critics Club even awarded the program with a special prize with the wording "For what it was." But already in September, “Freedom of Speech” with Savik Shuster will again appear on the air. True, in Ukraine.

- I would like to start with NTV. After the closure of the "Freedom of Speech" you were offered to head the directorate of documentary films. Why did the documentary film line never appear on the channel?

- In the NTV network there was no line for documentary films. Creating a documentary direction on the channel is a very long and painstaking work, which involves some risk for the channel. The situation in which NTV was at the beginning of last season did not allow the channel to go for big experiments, because an immediate rating was needed. The ruler and my departure to Kyiv have nothing in common. I just realized that the "documentary" assignment was an intermediate step in the process of getting rid of me. I received some compensation for not slamming the door after the Freedom of Speech closed. Nobody was going to renew the contract with me - they just waited a year for everything to calm down. After that, I accepted the offer to work in Ukraine.

- Recently, in an interview with Izvestia, the general director of NTV

Mr. Kulistikov, answering the question why the Freedom of Speech was closed, said that the main reason for the closure was the age of the audience, which was made up of people over 60 years old. How would you comment on this statement?

- You don't have to go far for an answer - just raise the statistics. "Freedom of Speech" had quite a young audience. Speculative conclusions about the audience is a conversation for the poor, dust in the eyes. Freedom of Speech was closed for completely different reasons. As I was told not by the general director of NTV, but by a more important person, it was closed "because it undermined the foundations of the state." If the program watched by sixty-year-olds shakes the foundations of the state, then I don't know what to say.

The reason for the closure is now more obvious than before. The country is divided into ours and others. The loyal and the disloyal. For the current Russian authorities, I am a stranger. As I was told, I am "genetically different". When the term “genetic” appears in the vocabulary of those in power, this is a sign of a fascist ideology. And of course I don't fit in. Therefore, I am not interested in discussing all statements about the audience - I don’t want to respond to nonsense.

- Do you follow what is happening on Russian television?

- While in Ukraine, I practically stopped watching Russian television, because it is impossible to watch the news - one continuous propaganda. I watch Ukrainian and international news, and I read Russian Internet sites: they say much more about what is happening in Russia.

— What does Russia look like on Ukrainian television?

- Doesn't look like it. Ukraine is absolutely not interested in Russia. In Crimea, people are interested in Russia, they watch Russian channels. The same can be said about Eastern Ukraine. And Western Ukraine does not know at all what Russian television is. Ukrainian news deliberately and, it seems to me, stupidly deny Russia. Because Russia has always been, is and will be an important country for Ukraine, it is a big market for Ukrainian goods, services and personnel.

Therefore, in the place of Ukrainian TV channels, I would try to analyze the situation in the eastern neighbor better than Russian TV does. But there is no such understanding here. In turn, on Russian channels, for ideological reasons, information about Ukraine was replaced with naked propaganda. As a result, a certain information vacuum has formed between the two countries.

— The closure of Freedom of Speech was symptomatic: analytical programs disappeared from live broadcasts. What can this lead to?

- The intelligentsia will still receive the necessary information - set plates, watch CNN, read the Internet. And the people will drink and become stupid. You will not enter the market with such people, because they are not competitive. He is forced to sit and rejoice at being manipulated by oil addicts. Yavlinsky accurately said: in the vein of the left hand - a needle with oil, in the right - a needle with gas, they sit and go crazy. Such a policy, including television, will lead to the intellectual impoverishment of the people. Moreover, we must remember that in Russia television is a kind of unifying space for 140 million people. And if this space is filled to the brim with pop music, "sold out" and propaganda, then the picture is depressing.

- And for the newspapers, apparently, come from.

- I think there will be a struggle for all publications, especially closer to 2008, the presidential elections. It is very difficult to give up power. Especially if you understand that the new government will treat you the same way you treated Khodorkovsky, for example. Therefore, I think that the means of any influence on society will be put under strict control.

— Are the media spaces of Ukraine and Russia very different?

- The advertising market in Ukraine is ten times smaller than in Russia. Therefore, there are much more opportunities on Russian television. Russia is already a European-level player in the production of TV series and entertainment programs. But Russian television is subsidized - I do not think that it receives real money and pays for itself. The three main channels of the country are outside the economy, they are for elections. In Ukraine, in this sense, it is better, television is even too tied to economic indicators. But here there is still no understanding of the educational function of television, an understanding that the viewer must be won over, that this is a risk that requires strategy, not tactics. And the people who own the channels should understand that it is impossible to educate society only with entertainment and films.

— How did the Orange Revolution affect the ideological component of the channels? After all, many once pro-government channels have radically changed their information policy...

- Many owners of TV channels supported Yanukovych, because they did not believe in the victory of the revolution and thought that, owning all the media, they could make the cook president. But it happened otherwise, and it was a shock. Hence the undisguised desire to be friends with the new government. This is such a very Soviet trait. But, for example, Mr. Murdoch, the owner of the American Fox News channel, takes a very conservative, Proboshevist position. But I assure you that if a Democratic president comes to power, Fox will still remain in the same pro-Republican position. And in the culture of the post-Soviet space, this readiness for a quick change of views is embedded. And in Ukraine, attempts to play along with the authorities will not end in anything good. Today, a lot depends on the media. Journalists have no less responsibility than politicians. If Ukrainian journalists get involved in political games, they will lose the trust of the people, and the same thing will happen as in Russia after 1996, and this is the end. But the fact that more than three hundred journalists signed a letter to the president in connection with the scandal with his son, I think this is a good sign.

- What were you guided by when accepting the offer to move to Kyiv?

The revolution also affected me. Yushchenko proclaimed a clear political course - to enter Europe. That is, to create a European legal framework, to create freedom of speech, to create similar European courts. This is close to me, so I came here with pleasure, even with enthusiasm.

— But the ICTV channel, where you work now, belongs to Mr. Pinchuk, an oligarch who is in opposition to the current government.

— I believe that Pinchuk is not currently an opposition or pro-government oligarch, but simply a victim. He was on the list of enemies. And working on a channel whose main shareholder is an enemy of the authorities is not easy. But I came here not to become his mouthpiece, but to do journalism. I will not serve either the government or the opposition. I will be engaged in a profession, information, as balanced and objective as possible.

- Does it bother you that your name can be used for cover?

— My name can be used in any way, but I remain myself. Sometimes it makes me laugh: in Moscow, for the authorities, I was a CIA agent, but when I came to Ukraine, I am the hand of Moscow. Trying to explain that I came here to pursue a profession is unrealistic. So there is only one thing left: to be yourself and do "Freedom of Speech". Although I must admit that I am more of a pessimist than an optimist, because here, too, the "witch hunt" begins - for those who supported Yanukovych. Here even the term appeared - "political repressions". The whole East supported Yanukovych, and trying to take revenge on everyone means splitting the country. And the threat of a split cannot be underestimated. Similarly, Moscow underestimated the problem of the Caucasus before the first Chechen war.

— What will your Freedom of Speech project in Ukraine be about?

— It will be a talk show on the main topic of the week. The same format, only more technologically advanced. I cannot say that I have fully integrated into the political situation, but I am in the process. And most importantly, I need to understand how psychologically the Ukrainian society differs from the Russian one. I already understand that there is a completely different psychology here and it is necessary to act differently. This is not a stick and a stick, but a stick and a stick. Here is a completely different humor, you need to deal with irony differently. And until now I can't say on what topics the audience of Ukraine can be united. My second task is knowledge of the language. After all, the program will be bilingual, so I am now intensively studying Ukrainian.

Are you considering returning to Russia?

“I never thought about it. Now I live in Kyiv.