'I made my excuses, and left the money'

WESTERN companies wanting to sell more soap have to buy advertisements, but in Russia they have found a much more effective technique: they simply bribe journalists to write glowing articles about their products.

Russian journalists used to enjoy high prestige during the Soviet era, but these days they earn at best US$200 a month and their newspapers are little more than the political playthings of Russia's elite business class.

As a result, many hacks are willing to bump up their wages by means that would be frowned upon in the West. Getting a bent article past the editor isn't a problem either; he usually gets a cut too. Among Russian companies it is standard practice, according to local journalists. "It happens all the time," says the managing editor of one Russian paper. Not only are journalists bribed, but they turn to blackmail as well. "Often the journalist will dig up dirt on someone or on a company and then tell them, 'I will publish this unless you pay me.'" Bribery is so widespread that Russian companies are often surprised when western journalists refuse to take their money. There is even a word for such pieces: zakazukhi.

A few years ago, I interviewed the chairman of Menatep Bank, a household-name financial institution before it collapsed in 1998. Elena Matveeva, the press secretary, took me to one side afterwards and said bluntly: "We want to pay you a monthly salary to place articles about Menatep in the English-language press."

I refused, explaining to her that western publications have an ethical code that prohibits such behaviour.

But some western companies in Russia have no such qualms. Chris Tolliss, a business consultant in Moscow, says that when one food company - a name you'll see in every supermarket in Britain - was setting up a few years ago, its managers asked him how much they should budget for buying articles in the press. Tolliss recommended they should spend around $5,000 a year.

No one seems to care that much. In a survey, 74 per cent of the Russians polled said that they think you have to "give or receive bribes if you want to rise to the top". Add the fact that most of the newspapers used to be little more than Soviet propaganda mouthpieces and no one in Russia really expects what they read to be true.

For the record, I should disclose that the Evening Standard has paid me to write this article and I believe its contents to be true and accurate.

Copyright 2001
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