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The Primorye Duma is considering providing billions of rubles to the 32 newspapers in the krai that are either all or partly owned by city governments.

But critics say the move could give the krai leverage against media that in some cases have been vociferous in their opposition to the Duma, the krai administration and Gov. Yevgeny Nazdratenko. And some journalists say officials haven’t hesitated in the past to use muscle against those they disapprove of.

The Duma is scheduled to vote on the proposal in a second reading Nov. 19; as many as three readings are required before the plan becomes law.

Valentina Petrova, deputy head of the krai press department, said the Duma has budgeted 5 billion rubles ($833,000) next year for newspapers, though the figure could change as deputies hash out the details. The money will primarily go to newspapers affiliated with city governments, however, the White House might also hand out cash to others of the krai’s 111 newspapers.

The Duma was inspired by the federal government to take action, Petrova said. In 1995, the State Duma passed a bill asking officials to conduct a census of municipal newspapers, so that it could provide money and “keep them from dying,” she said. But the law was never enacted, and so local oblast and krai governments have begun doing so themselves.

Asked whether the Primorye – Mayor Victor Cherepkov’s stridently anti-Duma newspaper – could end up getting krai money, Petrova said that paper could apply like anyone else. The funding would not be given out with orders that the paper adopt a certain political stance, she insists.

“Everyone understands that that isn’t the right way to do things,” Petrova said. “That’s sleazy, like in communist times. The goal of this law is not to let ailing newspapers die.”

However, some leaders have been accused of exerting pressure. The krai is part-owner of the Vladivostok Broadcasting Company, and broadcasting director Georgy Klimov said Vice Gov. Konstantin Tolstoshein once ordered the company never to mention the name of Cherepkov on the air.

After VBC radio reporter Alexei Sadykov criticized then-Mayor Tolstoshein in 1994, several men kidnapped Sadykov, drove him to a cemetery, and tortured him for hours. (The suspects are now on trial, but Tolstoshein was never implicated.)

Klimov added that Tolstoshein “called me personally and told me that if I did the same thing [criticized him], some of his thugs would come over and smash all my equipment and cut off the power in my office.”

On another occasion, Klimov alleged, “He said if we don’t stop defaming the krai administration, he would do his best to sack us. He would plant drugs in the office and keep track of our personal ties.”

Tolstoshein’s secretary referred calls on the matter to the krai press center. Neither press officials nor Tolstoshein returned repeated calls from the Vladivostok News seeking comment.

Governments can lose their temper over surprising transgressions. The city of Arseniev is still denying information to the Arseniev weekly Business Ars, which is part-owned by the city government, because of a column published last May, said General Director Valentina Sablina.

One reader wrote the paper’s horoscope columnist, asking if residents should pack up and leave the depressed mining community. The columnist said to sit tight. “In 1998 the situation will change because there will be a change in city government,” he wrote.

City officials were so angry, they told their employees to stop releasing information to Business Ars, Sablina said.

(Arseniev city spokeswoman Lyubov Gudkova said there is no truth to the story. She always cooperates with the paper, she said.)

Sablina, the editor, sees a bright side to the conflict.“We’re glad we don’t have to print all their boring decrees any more,” she said.