Paul Goble
Staunton,
September 1 – The Putin regime may have lost one of its favorite ways of
closing down media outlets it doesn’t like – the imposition of fines that these
outlets haven’t been able to pay and that Western observers often dismiss as something
other than the repressive measures they are.
Last
week, a Russian court imposed an 800,000-ruble (11,000 US dollars) fine on the
7x7 news agency, an independent online resource that covers developments in
Russia’s regions and republics that Moscow would prefer to remain uncovered.
That fine, the Kremlin clearly calculated would be sufficient to close the
outlet.
But
the powers that be were wrong. 7x7 journalists launched an online crowd-funding
ever and with 24 hours had collected more than 840,000 rubles from its
supporters. That is more than enough to
pay the fine and ensure that the agency can continue to function, at least
until the regime comes up with another tactic (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/324843/).
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