Russian PM pulls plug on televised cabinet meetings

By Gleb Bryanski

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov on Thursday barred TV cameras from cabinet sessions in a move that will spare the blushes of top officials but deprive Russians of an entertaining glimpse of ministerial antics.

The practice of broadcasting footage of the cabinet meetings, brought in by Zubkov's predecessor Mikhail Fradkov, gave many Russians an up-close look at the workings of government.

But at Thursday's session, Zubkov opened the meeting with a congratulatory message to the Russian national soccer team on beating England in a Euro 2008 qualifier. Then the signal was cut.

"As far as I understand this is the generally accepted practice," government spokesman Alexander Zharov said, explaining the decision.

"It is more comfortable for members of the cabinet to work like that considering the nature of the information discussed at meetings," he said.

Zubkov, who some observers say is being groomed by President Vladimir Putin to be Russia's next president, has used the televised cabinet meetings to striking effect since his appointment last month.

A former collective farm boss, Zubkov established a reputation as a tough manager by telling a minister: "How dare you not fulfill an order from the Russian president?"

Spokesman Zharov said instead of having cabinet meetings open to TV cameras and journalists, ministers would answer questions from journalists after their session has finished.

MINISTERS MEDIA BLUSH

"Zubkov keeps offending his ministers and even talks to them in a derogatory way," veteran television and radio anchorman Sergei Dorenko told Reuters.

"It is more comfortable for him to continue to address them as schoolchildren without the mass media watching, because they blush when they are being flogged," he said.

But Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said ministers would be more critical of each other without television cameras.

"Ministers are more critical of each other when we work behind closed doors," Kudrin told reporters after the cabinet meeting. "If there are cameras around, they do not like washing dirty linen in public."

Under Fradkov, the meetings were often the stage for political theatre, sometimes descending into farce.

The former prime minister was seen upbraiding ministers with folksy proverbs and ungrammatical Russian that gave rise to a new expression: the "Fradkism."