MOSCOW, January 30, 2012 (AFP) - Russia's tightly-controlled television gave the microphone to opposition leaders at the weekend for the first time in years, after the protests against Vladimir Putin's return to the Kremlin.
But observers saw the move as one orchestrated from above, an attempt to let off steam and create a semblance of debate in a campaign where Putin is not likely to directly respond to his critics.
"If Not Putin, Who?" was the aptly titled talk show on the NTV channel, owned by state gas giant Gazprom, which featured anti-Kremlin politician Boris Nemtsov and several opposition activists facing off with Putin's supporters.
"Putin or not Putin? Six months ago, you could not even imagine this question, it was merely rhetorical," host Anton Khrekov said before a passionate debate weighed Putin's merits.
"Something is clearly going on in the country," Nemtsov, a former deputy prime minister, said on the programme. "I have not been on this channel for five years."
State-controlled Channel One's prime-time talk show hosted by veteran presenter Alexander Gordon allowed opposition politician Vladimir Ryzhkov to call Putin's party United Russia a "party of crooks and thieves".
"Citizen Gordon" even aired clips of people stuffing ballot boxes with fake ballots during the December 4 parliamentary polls which sparked the mass protests against Putin's rule ahead of his candidacy in March 4 presidential elections.
National television in Russia has been tightly controlled since the early years of the last decade, and most channels are owned either by the state or by state-controlled companies like Gazprom.
But the channels, including NTV, began to let the voice of the opposition into their coverage last month, showing the mass rallies that drew tens of thousands in Moscow to protest unfair elections and Putin's monopoly on power.
"A miracle happened on Sunday night on official television," former economy minister Andrei Nechayev commented on his blog Monday.
"The main question is, has free speech descended upon us for one evening, until March 4, or for a longer period of time?"
Analysts speculated that the show of glasnost (openness) had been sanctioned as part of the orchestrated campaign season and is not an act of bravery by network management.
"The channels are carrying out an order from the authorities that want to show that there is no censorship in Russia. It's Putin's response to the tens of thousands of demonstrators that protest against censorship and challenge the vote's results," said media expert Irina Petrovskaya.
While airing the talk-shows, the channels' news programmes ignored an auto rally Sunday, where thousands of car owners drove through Moscow in cars decorated with protest insignia, said analyst Anna Kachkayeva.
Despite their brief time in the spotlight, many participants said Monday that the channels deleted their most important remarks.
"Issues that are most important for the public were removed from the programme," Nemtsov wrote on his blog.
"My statement was censored, just like the previous time," wrote businessman Yevgeny Chichvarkin, currently self-exiled in Britain.
