Editorial: Putin turning back the clock

Saturday, April 14, 2007 | 7:27 a.m.

With so much turmoil in the Middle East, it is difficult to focus on troubling global developments elsewhere.

But the disturbing actions by Russian President Vladimir Putin to silence the media in his country deserve a strong rebuke from the Bush administration.

Bloomberg News reported this week that Putin, already having restricted the voices of Russian newspapers and television, is now reining in Web sites that are not to his liking. He is doing this through a new agency geared to supervise Russian Web sites. In recent months one Web site was shut down by court order for not registering as a media outlet, only to reopen under stricter controls.

Another Web site critical of Putin's business interests was forced off line until it could find a U.S. Web server, Bloomberg reported.

After the Cold War ended there was hope with the breakup of the Soviet Union that Russia would emerge as a truly democratic nation. Instead Putin has turned it back into more of an authoritarian regime with his crackdown on civil liberties.

Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, who helped usher in the end of the Cold War, has been highly critical of the renewed Russian propaganda effort. "The one thing I can say is that it's pointless today to watch television," Bloomberg quoted him as saying.

Putin will further strain his tenuous relationship with the West if he continues to stifle free expression in Russia.