Vladimir Putin denies persecution of cultural figures in Russia

President Vladimir Putin rejected claims today that culture and education in Russia had suffered from government funding cuts and that cultural figures were being harassed. In response to comments by Irina Prokhorova, the leader of the Civil Platform party, at the annual Q&A session with the president, Putin said the current climate was in no way comparable to the Soviet Union in 1937 when persecution was rampant and more than 1.5 million people were killed as part of Stalin’s Great Purge. He said that while there were “some conflicts of motives and points of view at the moment … nobody was going to be shipped off to a camp like in 1937.”

Direct Line with Vladimir Putin is a yearly, televised call-in in which the president answers questions from Russian citizens from around the world. Widely believed to be choreographed, this year’s questions ranged from those on the economy to the fate of the Tartars in Crimea.

In response to questions from science fiction writer Sergei Lukyanenko, who recently made headlines after announcing a ban on Ukrainian translations of his books to protest against the demonstrations in Kiev, Putin said: “Sergei, you don’t have to ban publication of your books, even in Ukraine. You’re part of Russian culture, and you should promote culture there.” The president followed by answering a question about his favourite film, replying that it is wartime classic Chapaev (1934), which propelled the figure of the civil war hero into a champion of Soviet culture.

After the Q&A was over, Putin was asked about the future of Rain TV, the beleaguered independent television channel. He said: “I will do everything to relieve you of the excessive attention of those in control.” Earlier this year, the future of Rain TV was threatened after numerous major cable providers decided to drop the news channel following the publication of a controversial poll about the Siege of Leningrad. The move was seen by Rain TV’s management as a bid to silence independent journalism in Russia.