Documents / FOIA release
This unclassified Central Intelligence Agency message, dated 31 August 1993 in the archive, reports on the 31 August issue of PRAVDA, the first to appear since 23 August after its suspension by Russian presidential decree. It describes the revamped masthead, an address from new chief editor Gennadiy Seleznev pledging centrist positions and independence, a support fund, and coup photographs. A newsdesk notice promises coverage of everything from encounters with flying saucers to interviews with politicians.
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
## UNCLASSIFIED Much of the content of the 31 August PRAVDA relates to the paper's enforced nonappearance over the past week. It publishes international appeals to Yeltsin to authorize publication and vox pop interviews commenting on its nonappearance. Most of page 3 is devoted to photographs of events in Moscow during the coup. An accompanying commentary by S. Oganyan notes that the paper's former editors refused to publish these photographs, and pledges: "We will seek to work in such a way as to ensure that PRAVDA is the first paper closed by the next junta, if there is one." A page-6 announcement by the newsdesk soliciting "news and original ideas" from readers declares that the paper will cover "all kinds of events, from pure sensation to 'insoluble' problems of everyday life; from encounters with 'flying saucers' to impromptu interviews with politicians." The paper contains no interviews with Soviet officials -- a staple of the "old" PRAVDA. It features more photographs and cartoons, including one reprinted from the Paris INTERNATIONAL HERALD-TRIBUNE showing a huge Yeltsin shaking the hand of a midget Gorbachev and saying: "Welcome back to power, Mikhail." Photographs of an old woman praying before an altar, her hand on her brow, and of Gorbachev in a similar posture are carried on page 2. There are also notably more religious locutions in correspondents' copy than were to be found in PRAVDA before its suspension. Besides reports from its own correspondents and TASS, it also carries reports attributed to INTERFAX and REUTER. Few reports and commentaries approach 1,000 words in length. There is a clear impression that an effort has been made to make the paper livelier in both presentation and content. PMU will file liberally from this issue to convey the flavor of the revamped PRAVDA. (endall) 31 aug 30/2027z aug BT #9119 NNNN
Not linked to a story yet.
FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 2 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.