#JeSuisCharlie in Russia
Following the Charlie Hebdo shootings in Paris, and the death of twelve people - seventeen with the events of the subsequent days -, a wave of sympathy has been witnessed across Europe. In addition to large demonstrations in France showing solidarity for a newspaper described by many as an “equal-opportunity offender” but targeted for its cartoons representing Islam’s prophet Muhammad, the hashtag #JeSuisCharlie was used more than 3 million times globally within the first two days. However, in the Russian media, the response has been more mixed.
Along with major world leaders, President Vladimir Putin was quick to express his condolences to the French President. He “strongly condemned the cynical crime and reiterated Russia’s readiness to continue active cooperation in combating the threat of terrorism.” He also sent Russia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergey Lavrov, to the Unity March in Paris, a move which contrasted with the United State’s decision to send Ambassador Jane Hartley in lieu of a higher-ranking official.
At the same time, a number of Russian news outlets began circulating conspiracy theories. A day after the attack, LifeNews, a 24-hour news channel considered pro-Kremlin, aired a 10-minute interview with Alexei Martynov, director of the International Institute for New States in which he stated, unchallenged: “I am sure that some American supervisors are responsible for the terror attacks in Paris.” Komsomolskaïa Pravda, formerly the official organ of the Communist Youth now turned into a popular tabloid, ran the headline “Did the Americans stage the terror attack in Paris?” across its front page, five days after the first shootings. Alexander Zhilin, head of the Moscow Centre for the Study of Applied Problems analyzed the attack as a form of payback from the US government against President Hollande for reconsidering Russian sanctions.
The rise of conspiracy theories, however, is not limited to Russian newspapers, as Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has voiced some of his own a day after the march in Paris. It has become part of a broader narrative wherein American intervention is being blamed for a number of events negatively affecting Russia’s standing in the world, from the revolution in Ukraine to the fall in oil prices.
However, the Russian media’s response to the Charlie Hebdo attacks was certainly not monopolized by conspiracy theorists. At the other end of the spectrum, the staff of Ekho Moskvy, a liberal radio station, published a picture of themselves wearing “Je Suis Charlie” T-shirts. On the day of the attack, the Russian Union of Journalists, the largest professional organization of journalists in Russia, held a minute’s silence to express their solidarity. Highlighting the high death toll of journalists in Russia, its secretary, Roman Serebryany, was quoted by the BBC as saying: "If people start to say, 'the killing is bad, but…' then you could say that about any journalistic activity."
However, this “but” has been an important thought in Russian op-eds, with the idea that freedom of speech cannot trump respect for the feelings of religious believers. It is what Deputy Prime Minister Dmitri Rogozin implied in his tweet: “Terrorism is evil. There’s no justification to it. Yet you can’t confuse freedom of speech with freedom to injure people’s deep feelings.” Some articles following this line of reasoning argued that Charlie Hebdo had provoked the attackers. On this topic, Russia’s media watchdog, Roskomnadzor, announced that publishing religious-themed cartoons could be considered a “violation of the laws on mass media and extremism” and thus as a crime in Russia. It subsequently warned St. Petersburg-based Business News Agency that a criminal case could be opened against the news outlet, leading it to take down the picture of Charlie Hebdo’s latest cover.
As the Russian people placed flowers and messages of support in front of France’s Embassy in Moscow, the spokesman for the Orthodox Church, condemning the attack, suggested that the #JeSuisCharlie movement does not value the respect of the feelings of religious believers enough. A few instances of individuals holding “Je Suis Charlie” signs were reported in Moscow, which led, in some instances, to sentences ranging from a $300 fine to eight days in jail for organizing an unapproved protest, sentences that raise by themselves the question of freedom of expression inside Russia.