Back to the USSR

Monday, June 9, 2008

Mikhail Delyagin must feel like a character in George Orwell's prophetic novel "1984." He has suffered the fate of becoming an "unperson," the term Orwell devised for dissidents who were rendered "unexistent" by "Big Brother." Orwell's grim satire was an indictment of the Soviet Union, where in fact, not fiction, people were removed from existence and history rewritten.

But Mr. Delyagin lives in Russia, the ex-Soviet Union, and he has not been removed from life. He has, however, as The New York Times reported, been digitally erased from a television talk show "like a disgraced comrade airbrushed from an old Soviet photo."

Mr. Delyagin's offense was to criticize Vladimir Putin, Russia's current "Big Brother." So his remarks were cut and technicians worked on the video to remove his image before the program was broadcast. But they were sloppy and left his disembodied hand and leg visible in one sequence of the show.

The incident, which would be funny if it did not have such sinister undertones, served to reveal just how "unfree" Russia is under former president, now Prime Minister Putin, who has changed his title but not his grip on power.

Mr. Delyagin explained to the Times that he, along with pretty well anyone who doesn't toe the Kremlin line, is on a "stop list." That means that they are banned from appearing on television, which has become a state monopoly. If, by mistake, they do get invited to air their views, the show is scrapped or they are digitally removed.

Mr. Delyagin, whom the Times describes as a political analyst — which cannot be easy under Putin — described the "stop list" as "an excellent way to stifle dissent." To arrange for someone to be digitally erased is an excellent way to scare dissidents into silence.