Putin’s Press Crackdown is Worse Even Than Stalin’s Soviet Union, Agree Reliable Sources Guests

The crackdown on the press by Russian President Vladimir Putin is worse than the press environment even in Joseph Stalin‘s Soviet Union, agreed the panel on Reliable Sources with Brian Stelter.

Stelter covered the worsening situation for journalists in Russia, which has prompted the Washington Post to remove bylines from reporters in Russia to protect them from retribution and has seen the shut down of several outlets in the nation, including some that have been in operation since the days of the Soviet Union.

CNN has stopped broadcasting in Russia, and other outlets are pulling out as well. Stelter talked to his panel about it, starting first with New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman.

“Is there anything analogous to the situation where you have correspondents from major networks from the US, UK, other countries that are stopping broadcasting from Russia? The Washington Post taking away bylines for reporters in Russia to protect them? Is there anything analogous to this in history?” Stelter asked.

“You know, I really can’t think of it, Brian,” said Friedman. “What I was going to say before I came on the show is, Putin is re-Sovietizing, well, the whole Russian society, in terms of closing and limiting freedom of information.”

“But really, those of us who wrote from the Soviet Union – I as a diplomatic reporter going back and forth – we never had these kind of restrictions,” he said. “Then I thought, Well, he’s re-Stalinizing it. You know, he’s taking us back.”

“But I think he’s taken us to a place where Russia’s never been before. This has become a sealed room,” he said. “So I find this terrifying at every level, the societal level, but also what this means for how Putin will make decisions.”

Stelter then turned to Puck News founder Julia Ioffe, who agreed that the total lack of real information available to Russian citizens and even the government is a very scary situation, and described some of the on-the-ground consequences in Russia.

Ioffe then emphasized the point Friedman made about the level of Putin’s strangling of the press.

“I just want to add to Tom’s point. Even during Stalin’s time, there were foreign correspondents in the Soviet Union. Even Stalin allowed them to kind of more or less do their work,” she said.

Watch the clip above, via CNN.