And, apart from a few Moscow-based newspapers, the media are mostly supine.Russia today has little or no claim to be a democracy, not even the shabby, inadvertent kind of democracy it was becoming under Mr YeltsinThe state, or Kremlin-friendly businesses, have taken over various television stations and other assets.
Shortly after the news of Putin's successful flight was reported by state media, the Kremlin-controlled English language television channel Russia Today broadcast the president's first interview since winning his third term in March.
In Russia, state media and pro-Kremlin commentators appear to be downplaying what some observers see as the cool reception given to President Vladimir Putin by other world leaders.
Five years ago, he blamed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the anti-Kremlin protests in Moscow's Bolotnaya Square.
As is often the case with state censorship, the workings of Kremlin-controlled media, as Skorobutov described them, were far more subtle than is popularly imagined.
Surprisingly, the film was shown on the Kremlin-controlled Rossiya state channel, even though Mr. Miroshnichenko asked one of his subjects whether Russia would survive as a country, a question now asked frequently in Russia but also often officially taboo.
Putin, his Kremlin entourage and state-controlled media have cast Nemtsov as a traitor for his defense of the new government in Ukraine after Kremlin-allied President Viktor Yanukovich was driven from power a year ago by a pro-Western European rebellion.
He told the pro-Kremlin newspaper Izvestia: "Would any state use chemical or any other weapons of mass destruction in a place where its own forces are concentrated?
Then the authorities said they were battling an alleged Kremlin-backed putsch.Now a state of emergency has enabled the authorities to black out opposition radio and television stations (and in some cases smash their equipment).
The State Department spokesman, Richard A. Boucher, said American officials shared the concerns of the international observers, "about things like state media systematically reporting favorably on pro-Kremlin parties and reporting negatively on opponents".
During the annual state of the nation address at the Moscow Kremlin in December 2013, Russian president Vladimir Putin denied any Russian's aspiration to be a superpower.
