Public officials and representatives of private companies

To meet with US public official is not easy thing if you are foreign journalist. I have couple of meetings with officials in NY and it became possible only because Paul Klebnikov Foundation support.

If officials do not know you and newspaper you are working for it is difficult for them to see any reason why should they loose their time. (Russian spy scandal made it even more difficult). The only way is recommendation from the part of somebody known to the official. As I noticed it may work. But it will take a long time before it will be possible to develop as much contacts as in native country.

Private companies' representatives and even top persons are much more opened and willing to discuss their professional topics. I have never expected but one top manager invited to come to his house to talk about energy issues. People inside private sector of economy can advise a lot of useful experts. And the experts are really eager to talk.

Independent experts who can comment on different situations in Russia from outside the country are extremely useful. Hope they will be of great helpf when I come home.

Midterm seminars in the University of Missouri; Asbestos project and some news

In the middle of july AFPF organized the trip to St. Louis and University of Missouri where midterm seminars took place. It was great for me to look at other America I'll never be able to see as a tourist. But the most important there were some practicaly useful courses conducted by Journalism School and IRE (Investigative Reporters and Editors) experts.

In particular I have got some basic skill to make small films (here is the link to the short movie I have made during the training. It is the first movie in my life http://www.youtube.com/user/nasryesmat ). I've never expected that films can be produced without complicated expensive equipment just with the help of software which is quite available. Hope we can use the technics to make some documentaries for our newspaper's website. Maybe for investigative reporting in Novaya Gazeta it will be good to diversify the means of presenting information. And small films on different topics showing not only documents and schemes but also some action can be interesting for our audience.

The seminars conducted by IRE experts Mark Horvit and Jaimi Dowdell (National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting) gave me some new knowledge about FOIA, databases and Excel. I am keen on databases so the seminars were interesting for me. As a person who survived in IRE computer-assisted reporting (CAR) 'boot camp' in Missouri I can say that it was extremely helpful experience.

I am also glad to say that The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and BBC Asbestos Project "Dangers In The Dust"(I took part in the Russian part of it) was published and already brought some results (http://www.publicintegrity.org/investigations/asbestos/). Hope Novaya Gazeta will publish something in Russian.

One more recent thing: my article "Putin's 13" about Russian prime-minister friends businesses around Gasprom was published in Spanish on the website launched by the Press and Society Institute of Venezuela ( http://www.arman-do.info/ ). The work over series of articles "Prime Minister's Friends" published in Novaya Gazeta was supported by SCOOP - the project of Danish Association of Investigative Journalism, the English version is here ( http://i-scoop.org/index.php?id=24&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=926&tx_ttnews[backPid]=215&cHash=c48090ca73&MP=24-216 ).

Pointer Institute conference

The Pointer Institute conducted conference "Fact or Friction: Building the Bridge Between the Fourth and Fifth Estates" at the Newseum. Among the speakers there were president of Pointer Karen B. Dunlap, some of Institute's experts, senior vice president for news of NPR, CEO's of popular websites and founders of famous blogs.
It was useful for me to hear what they were discussing. I think in Russia we already have some of the tendencies in mass media - the same as in the USA, and some of them will be actual maybe in couple of years.
The audience is tired from the flow of news, people can not understand why should they trust the sources of information, they like interpreters who can say whom to hate and whom to love and objectiveness in journalism is under questions. What strategies should mass media use to be closer to the public, what are the new forms of interaction and cooperation with the audience? And what is the role of bloggers and citizen journalism: do they become new power or sooner or later they will be a part of mainstream media? Those were some of the questions of the discussion (as I understood).
Some practical result for me: I have got contacts that may be good for one educational project Novaya Gazeta should like to participate in Russia. With the help of our European friends we think about inviting some experts to come to Moscow and to give some lectures for young jourlalists and students. Maybe the experts from Pointer Institute will be interested to take part in the project.

Conference in Las Vegas

Several days ago I enjoyed Investigative Reporters and Editors' (IRE) conference in Las Vegas. There were something like 800 journalists. And I arrived to DC with handful of cards (not poker cards, of course).
I took part in one panel and talked about Russian databases and public records' laws. And visited the panels of best journalists in the world, experts in FOIA and different technics of getting the information (including former FBI agent). I have also exchanged the information with colleagues from Europe, Africa, Japan and China. Hope these contacts can help me and them to trace companies, people and topics we are interested in.
Las Vegas is really great place. My American colleagues assuared me that not all of the cities in USA looks like Las Vegas. It is a place with ongoing holidays. So it is difficult for me to understand how people are living there.
Besides studying some new technics in journalism I have also studied Blackjack.
And I have succeed, because I have lost only $20.

Search for Putin's friends abroad (global databases exercise)

Global databases about companies and people (such as LexisNexis) are really wonderful. Unfortunately they are too expensive that's why Russian journalists do not use them widely. But I have got the opportunity and started my databases practice with the global search for the companies linked with the friends of Russian prime-minister Vladimir Putin.
The results are fantastic! Just the superficial search brings several companies in Europe.
Some of them were created with the huge investments and accumulate big summs of money doing business with Russian state controled companies.
And it seems that some big and famous foreign companies found good partners among Putin's friends.
Maybe these guys are talented entrepreneurs? Or for big foreign companies it is much safe to do business in Russia with such partners?
I have sent some requests. Hope to see what they are thinking about that.

Informal relations

I am trying to understand the situation with tobacco lobbyism in Russia.

Lobbyism is not defined in any Russian law, but it was actively developed in shadow without any regulation from the part of the state. So it is difficult to draw any line between lobbyism and bribery. Many of Russian officials like the word 'lobbyism' just because it sounds better than 'corruption' or 'kickback'.

In most of cases it is hard to prove any connections between who is considered to be a 'lobbyist' and his 'client'. Informal relations of public officials and businessmen in Russia are strong and complicated. And the state does not have enough will to fight against corruption. Many Russian experts consider corruption to be a part of state management.

In USA and in Europe the serious attempts were made to stop practice of paying bribes in developing countries. Some of western companies (for example, Siemens and recently - Daimler)were punished for that practices. "Daimler AG and three subsidiaries resolve Foreign Corrupt Practices Act investigation and agree to pay $93,6 million in criminal penalties. Combined criminal and civil penalties of $185 million to be paid", - US Department of Justice told in the release (Daimler made improper payments to foreign officials in at list 22 countries including Russia to assist in securing contracts with government customers for the purchase of Daimler vehicles).

Daimler case seems to be not typical. Usually there are no direct schemes of giving bribes in Russia. All the schemes are sophisticated.
Is it a bribe if the company hires the consultant whose friend is a friend of public official who will take the decision the company really needs?
Is it 'corrupt practice' if the world famous company hires the wife of president's friend?
Is it 'a bribe' if the company cooperates with intermediary company owned by prime minister's friends (or any top manager's friend) to supply the big ammount of production for state controlled giant?

I have doubts about the effectiveness of US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (and its European analogue) if we are talking about cases like that.

Unfortunatelly foreign companies on Russian market have to play according to local rules. If they will not pay bribes, their business in Russia will be ruined. They will not be as effective as those who use corrupt practices. So in fact the law urges western companies to use more sophisticated schemes or to do corrupt practices outsourcing.

I think transnational companies that worked in Russia for quite a long time know about that practices. And they are smart enough to avoid direct connections with the 'lobbyists'. Whether or no it will be interesting to check it.

Freedom of Information Act

After Global Investigative Journalism Conference in Geneva I have spent a week in NY meeting with different people: journalists, public officials, civil sociaty activists and businessmen (great thanks to Paul Klebnikov Foundation, and personally Musa and Leslie for excellent events).
One of the questions I am interested is Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and how it works in America.
I've talked to Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Bloomberg colleagues about it.
Finally I have understood that there are no government in the world that will willingly disclose sensitive information.
So the only way is to find different ways.
It is great if there are enough money for the lawyers 'to sue information out' from the government.
If not - it sometimes may be problematic.
Going back to Russian illegal market of databases and corrupt public officials who have access to all kinds of information. In fact it is Russian black market freedom of information act (BMFOIA)!
You even don't need to send a request.