Social Media Raise Curtain on Staged Event in Moscow

Ellen Barry, The New York Times

MOSCOW — At about 4 p.m. on Thursday, Russia’s president, Dmitri A. Medvedev, stepped into a packed lecture hall at Moscow State University’s venerable journalism department. Applause washed over him, proof that progressive, social media-savvy young people still look to him as a standard-bearer.

Except — it wasn’t.

Starting that morning, journalism students had been complaining over Twitter that the 300 people in the audience were outsiders, chosen by Kremlin-connected organizers and brought to the university. They included contingents from pro-Kremlin youth movements, while only a tiny number of students from the department were allowed in. When several journalism students were detained for holding up pieces of paper with critical messages, the Twitter hashtag “zhurfak,” or journalism department, began trending upward.

By Friday, the newspaper Vedomosti had derided the event as “a practical exercise in the history of the U.S.S.R.” A group of students declared an “unscheduled Subbotnik,” after the Soviets’ mandatory public cleaning projects, to sanitize the grand staircase where Mr. Medvedev had entered. A petition circulated, reading: “Mr. Medvedev! Do not come to Moscow State University again.”

The episode underlines the challenge that the authorities face at the start of two back-to-back electoral campaigns. Stage-managed events are a mainstay of politics here, but this year they are being greeted with sourness, especially among people who get their news from the Internet.

“There was a suspicion that they wanted to insure themselves against our students, who are not members of pro-Kremlin organizations,” said Oleg Gervalov, 20, the coordinator of a student group.

“There were many people here who trusted the government, who say that their relationship has changed a little now,” he said.

Mr. Medvedev himself has expressed disdain for the political showcases known as Potemkin villages, after the fake settlements erected by the minister Grigory Potemkin to ingratiate himself with Catherine the Great. Mr. Medvedev’s spokeswoman, Natalya Timakova, said that she was aware of the journalism students’ grievances and that he might return to the journalism department to meet with them.

Ms. Timakova said that the journalism department’s auditorium was being used for the event because of its location, and that many students in attendance were ethnic minorities who attend other universities, since the topic was interethnic relations.

It is difficult to imagine this playing out so publicly in years past, before the center of political discussion swung to the Internet. Social networks have forced the authorities to respond to unorthodox critiques: two weeks ago, Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin’s press secretary explained on a Web-based news channel that some of Mr. Putin’s televised exploits had been staged.

Online, every week brings a new witty, lacerating poem satirizing Russian leaders, part of the “Citizen Poet” series. A viral video clip has the rock star Andrei Makarevich performing a song about Potemkin-esque preparations for Mr. Putin’s visit to a backwater called “Kholuyovo,” or “Bootlickerville.” A song called “Our Asylum is Voting for Putin” began circulating a few days ago.

By Friday evening, criticism over the journalism department event was so sharp that the ruling party, United Russia, stepped in to defend the measures taken by the president’s security service. A spokeswoman for Nashi, the pro-kremlin youth movement, said the affair had been orchestrated by a small group of antigovernment students.

“It’s three students and 20 of their comrade journalists,” said the spokeswoman, Kristina Potupchik. “It is a standard situation for us, when 20 liberal journalists rock the boat.”

Mr. Gervalov said students had learned of Mr. Medvedev’s visit from a news Web site the day before, around the time administrators asked him for a list of eight journalism students to invite and the questions they wanted to ask. He was told to give the list to Vladimir Tabak, an alumnus who published “Happy Birthday, Mr. Putin,” a calendar featuring scantily clad female journalism students, and founded an online group called “I Really Like Putin.”

Shortly before Mr. Medvedev arrived, Mr. Gervalov was told that the Federal Guard Service had not been able to approve any of the names on his list.

Three students were detained outside the university building and several more inside, all for holding up papers with critical questions for Mr. Medvedev. One 19-year-old said she was detained after she held up a piece of paper bearing the words, “Press is derived from Oppress?”

She was questioned mainly about whether she belonged to a specific opposition group and whether someone had paid her to hold up the sign, she said, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of further consequences.

“I figured we would have the opportunity to say something to the president,” she said. “This was the only possibility because they did not allow us into the conference room.”

Michael Schwirtz, Olga Slobodchikova and Anna Tikhomirova contributed reporting.