(C) Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
This story was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
Russia investigates Boris Yeltsin museum for 'foreign agent' activity [1]
['Mark Trevelyan', 'Thomson Reuters', 'Chief Writer On Russia', 'Cis.', 'Worked As A Journalist On Continents', 'Reported', 'Countries', 'With Postings In London', 'Wellington', 'Brussels']
Date: 2023-06-15
Summary Probe threatens legacy of Russia's first post-Soviet leader
Hawks push nationalist view of Russian history
Hard decision for Putin, who owed his rise to Yeltsin
June 15 (Reuters) - Russia's justice ministry has started investigating a museum dedicated to the late president Boris Yeltsin as a possible "foreign agent", state media reported on Thursday.
The Yeltsin Centre in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg pays tribute to the life, work and legacy of Yeltsin, who served as post-Soviet Russia's first president from 1991 to 1999 and picked Vladimir Putin as his successor.
It has long been attacked by hardline nationalists who accuse it of putting forward a view of recent Russian history that is too pro-Western and insufficiently patriotic.
The term "foreign agent" has connotations of spying and has been widely used by Russian authorities against journalists, opposition figures and others whom it deems to be conducting anti-state activity with backing from abroad.
Such a designation - if confirmed by the investigation - would be a stain on the legacy of Yeltsin, who died in 2007 at the age of 76.
It would represent a further sign of how Russia, as it wages war in Ukraine, is eliminating views of its own history that diverge from that promoted by Putin, who likes to compare himself with warrior tsars such as Peter the Great.
The investigation is politically sensitive as the museum's steering committee includes Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and senior Kremlin officials Anton Vaino and Alexei Gromov.
TRICKY DECISION FOR PUTIN
Political analyst Tatiana Stanovaya said the move was delicate even for Putin.
On the one hand, he could just leave it to officials to determine that "if there has been foreign money, they (the museum) are foreign agents".
But allowing the destruction of a former Russian leader's reputation could set a precedent that Putin would wish to avoid. "So for Putin this decision will not be an easy one," she said.
Yeltsin, a longtime rival to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and a driving force behind the breakup of the Soviet Union, is a figure whose legacy divides Russians.
Among key episodes in his career, the museum highlights his role in defeating a hardline Soviet coup against Gorbachev in August 1991.
But many Russians also remember him as a heavy drinker and an erratic personality, blaming him for the chaotic period after the Soviet collapse when Russia became a recipient of Western aid and many people were plunged into hardship while a small group of "oligarchs" acquired vast fortunes.
RIA news agency said Deputy Justice Minister Oleg Sviridenko told a parliamentary commission that a "deep" check of the Yeltsin Centre had begun and nothing would be hidden.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he did not know what had prompted the investigation, but it was part of the "normal work" of the justice ministry.
The museum said that all its activity, including financial, was transparent and legal, and it was confident the audit would confirm that "there are not, and cannot be, any grounds for declaring the Yeltsin Centre a foreign agent".
Additional reporting by Felix Light; Editing by Gareth Jones and Hugh Lawson
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-opens-investigation-boris-yeltsin-museum-foreign-agent-activity-ria-2023-06-15/
Published and (C) by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Content appears here under this condition or license: By permission of RFE/RL.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/rferl/
