The Kremlin’s chief prosecutor Tuesday arrested and jailed Vladimir Gusinsky, head of a media empire that has been sharply critical of the government.
The arrest raised fears of a clampdown on the press. But President Vladimir Putin, traveling abroad, insisted the arrest had been an unwelcome surprise to him.
The prosecutor said Gusinsky had been arrested on suspicion of embezzling at least $10 million in federal property, apparently related to the purchase of a government-owned television station in St. Petersburg in the mid-1990s.
His detention came after weeks of government-orchestrated pressure on his Media-Most news organization, which includes Russia’s only independent television network and many newspapers. The pressure included attempts to call in loans and a spectacular police raid last month on the Moscow headquarters of the company.
It also came only nine days after President Clinton, on a visit to Moscow, indirectly expressed support for Gusinsky by giving his only interview to a radio station owned by Media-Most.
In Washington, White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said: “We do have a concern about press freedom in Russia, and that concern was expressed directly to President Putin in his meeting with President Clinton. We’re going to want to take a look at this and understand the details. But we are quite concerned about some of the steps that have been taken against the free media.”
The arrest unleashed a torrent of protest from Gusinsky’s supporters and enemies, many of whom worried that the move signaled a new era of repression under Putin. But Putin suggested he was as shocked by the detention as anyone else.
Gusinsky was seized only hours after Putin left Moscow on a weeklong diplomatic tour. After landing in Madrid, his first stop, Putin called the arrest a “dubious present for me” and insisted he had no advance knowledge of it.
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“I hope the prosecutor has sufficient reasons for this step,” he said. “I will find out all the circumstances tonight and I will have my own viewpoint.”
Putin’s comments left open explanations for the arrest and its timing. One was that the president was trying to insulate himself from what was certain to be a sharp reaction from Western leaders he will meet this week. Another was that the arrest had been ordered by Kremlin officials behind Putin’s back, either to punish Gusinsky or to embarrass the president.
Last month, after the raids on Media-Most offices, Putin insisted the actions had to do with possible crimes, not press freedoms, and criticized the organization for saying otherwise. “No attempt at blackmail in relation to law enforcement is permissible, just as limits on freedoms of speech and of the mass media are not permissible,” he said then.
But Putin has frequently attacked journalists as unhelpful and, in the context of the Chechen war, even traitorous. In recent weeks, Kremlin officials have closed down a St. Petersburg television station and revealed plans to require the licensing of all newspapers.