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| | Smokescreen Around Chechnya - Worldpress.org |
 | | Shocked by gory images of federal servicemen burned in their tanks by Chechen rebels, the public became increasingly critical of the first war as it dragged on, and the Kremlin eventually backed down and negotiated a peace agreement with the separatists in August 1996. |
 | | By the time the second war began, however, federal authorities had designed and introduced a comprehensive system to limit the access of journalists to Chechnya and shape their coverage. |
 | | Journalists complying with the rules had to rely on spokesmen of the federal troops on the ground or, in Moscow, on Putin’s longtime Chechnya spokesman, Sergei Yastrzhembsky, or the officials who showed up for regular off-the-record briefings at the Rosinformtsentr press center, which was specifically set up to provide the Kremlin’s spin on the war. |
| www.worldpress.org /Europe/2048.cfm (1225 words) |
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