Word: starkov
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Victor Afanasyev and Vladislav Starkov are both journalists, but they're unlikely ever to share a byline. As editor of the gray-tinged daily Pravda, Afanasyev, 66, has been less than eager to rush into print any of the startling revelations or investigative spadework that has become the hallmark of glasnost. On the other hand, Starkov, 50, oversees the weekly tabloid Argumenty i Fakty, whose sharp prose and readers' letters more often than not dwell on the changes sweeping the country, and helped make the paper the most widely read in the Soviet Union. Yet last week both men faced...
...Starkov's troubles began at a meeting two weeks ago between Gorbachev and leading media representatives. The Soviet President has held other such sessions, but this time he did all the talking. During a two-hour finger- wagging lecture, Gorbachev delivered a blistering attack on liberal elements of the press, accusing them of undermining the influence of the Communist Party. He was particularly thin-skinned about press coverage of the so-called Interregional Group of Deputies, a liberal caucus in the Supreme Soviet, whose members voice harsh criticism of Gorbachev's leadership that makes its way into print. Said Gorbachev...
...weeks ago in Argumenty i Fakty. The four top scorers, based on 15,000 pieces of reader mail, were physicist Andrei Sakharov, economist Gavril Popov, Yeltsin and historian Yuri Afanasyev (no kin to Victor) -- every one a member of the Interregional Group A&F, which was founded by Starkov in 1978. It has grown to the astonishing circulation of 26 million, specializes in service features and has published other reader polls. It has thrived on controversy in the past, publishing glasnost-enlightened statistics on the number of Stalin's victims and the country's budget deficit, as well as admiring...
Last week Starkov was summoned to the Central Committee office of Vadim Medvedev, the party's chief ideologist, and urged to resign. Normally such an invitation, which unquestionably reflects the wishes of Gorbachev, would be an irrefusable offer. But Starkov so far remains in his job. "Everything here is normal," he said late last week. "I put my signature on this week's edition, and I plan to sign the next one too. Mistakes sometimes happen." Starkov retains the support of his staff, some of whom have threatened to go out on strike, while worried readers have been pestering phone...
Gorbachev may have targeted Starkov as a sop to conservatives, then moved against his real target: Afanasyev. Said Vitali Korotich, editor in chief of the liberal weekly Ogonyok: "Gorbachev is an experienced politician who does things in combinations." Another element in this combination may be a new press law under consideration by the Supreme Soviet. The measure, which has been welcomed by liberals, purports to abolish censorship and provides for creation of independent publications with none of the organizational sponsorship now required...
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