Listyev's Russian Liberals on "Chas Pik"

On March 1, 1995, Vladislav List’ev, the most important figure of post-Soviet television, was murdered in the lobby of his apartment building. The hired gunmen were never caught, the murder remains unsolved as of this writing, and the Russian public sphere is awash in accusations of who was behind it. Was List’ev killed because he was stalwart liberal warrior who did not want bend to the will of the oligarchs, or Yeltsin, or other corrupt actors? Or, was he killed as a result of sketchy financial dealings gone astray? Whatever the truth might be, at the time of his death, List’ev was a household name in Russia, both as a TV personality and as a producer. Famous since his work on Perstroika-era Vzgliad, in 1990-1995 List’ev gained fame for shows like Pole chudes and Tema (see Artifacts #00038, #00046). He also co-founded ViD, and since January 1995 served as the head of ORT (former Soviet Central Television, future Channel One). Finally, at the time of his death, he hosted Chas Pik [Peak Time], where he interviewed politicians, writers, artists, celebrities, and also more obscure professionals. The given excerpt is taken from an episode of Chas Pik aired after his death.
After an introduction by Andrei Makarevich, a famous rock star and a friend of List’ev and ViD, the episode proceeds in a series of “best of List’ev” excerpts. These excerpts intentionally, retrospectively reconstruct the kind of public speech that List’ev saw as important and are thus useful for understanding the post-Soviet ideology that was taking shape on Russian television. All of the excerpted guests of Chas Pik express the anti-Soviet consensus that we generally associate with the “liberal” or “democratic” political camp represented by former Vzgliad hosts like List’ev. Within that consensus we might hear the rhetoric the radical libertarianism, as in Aleksandr Kabakov, or the rhetoric of reflective nostalgia for the hapless sovok, as in Aleksandr Gradskii, or the rhetoric of pining for patriotism, as in Nikita MIkhalkov. For all three guests, and for just about all other invitees of Chas Pik, the post-Soviet 1990s appear as a time of evident hardship and unquestionable opportunity. In the many discussions at Chas Pik, Yeltsin rarely figures as the man of the hour; more often than not, Chas Pik’s guests criticize him for his incompetence, authoritarianism and corrupiton. On the other hand, with his business success, his sincere live on-air TV presence, his easygoing humor, and his incredible capacity to appropriate Western formats and style– in this case the suspenders of CNN’s Larry King– List’ev embodied the best that this era had to offer in the imagination of post-Soviet “democrats” (who typically defined themselves as such in opposition to the “red-browns” represented by the likes of Ziuganov, Limonov and Zhirinovsky, none of whom appeared on Chas Pik prior to List’ev’s death).