A Russian Defense Ministry official offered an American reporter a visit to a strategic missile base for $800. A KGB official asked a Mexican correspondent for $300 to tour secret police headquarters. The BBC was quoted a price of $1,000 an hour to film the Kalashnikov gun factory.
As Russia struggles toward a market economy, officials of state-owned agencies and businesses are demanding money for interviews, according to a study released Wednesday by the Foreign Correspondents Association of Moscow.Marco Politi, president of the association and correspondent for the Italian newspaper Il Messaggero, said he had sent the report to Russian government leaders and hoped they would instruct officials to end what he called "checkbook journalism."
At a news conference Wednesday, Politi called on the government to order the practice stopped at all levels.
The report documents an increasing trend among Russian officials, who often explain that they need the money for office supplies.
The list ranges from the Atomic Energy Ministry and Russian State Statistics Committee to the space program and the Olympic gymnastics coach.
Even the little-known Monuments Commission told The Washington Post it would cost $50 to photograph discarded statues of Lenin and other Soviet figures at its warehouse outside Moscow.
Many Western news organizations have policies against paying for news, even if it means losing an interview. It is not known how many do pay.
A spokesman for Russia's chief prosecutor, Valentin Stepankov, told a news conference last fall that his office charges foreign currency for what he called "creative work."
By the end of October, he said, Stepankov had earned $1,350, which was being used to buy stationery and modern equipment for the prosecutor's office.
An official from the Commonwealth of Independent States armed forces recently offered The Associated Press a trip to a strategic missile base near Moscow for $800.
The money would pay for the military commander, who was "not accustomed to dealing with the press," and for strategic rockets which would be taken off alert for the visit, Valery Myastnikov explained. The AP declined the offer.