Moscow is debating a return to Soviet-style censorship.
Mikhail Shvydkoy, a theater critic and ally of President Vladimir Putin, recently argued that the art and literature of the USSR proved that the censor’s stamp, permitting approved works, was compatible with creativity. It would be, he wrote, more honest than the current system requiring creators to follow legal codes and face punishment for breaking them.
There are already major restrictions on free speech in Russia, The Bell noted — it is effectively illegal, for instance, to describe some recent tax increases as “tax increases.” But there are no formal pre-publication censors. The publication of Shvydkoy’s piece suggests that the Kremlin has given its tacit backing to, at least, explore changing that.