RUSSIA: As President Vladimir Putin dines with Queen Elizabeth and swaps bons mots with Britain's prime minister this week, critics here are warning of a Kremlin-led crackdown on the country's media ahead of key elections.
Many see Mr Putin's state visit to Britain, the first by a Russian leader since the 19th century, as proof of his acceptance into the West's political elite, and Russia's return to the coterie of major world powers.
But while Mr Putin and Mr Tony Blair tiptoe around questions of alleged rape and murder by Russian troops in Chechnya, and glide over disagreements on the war in Iraq and Iran's nuclear energy plans, defenders of free speech are calling for a political inquest into the death of Russia's last nationwide, independent television station.
Officials blamed financial problems for the demise this week of TVS, which rose from the remnants of two other channels with similar alleged business woes.
But with parliamentary elections here in December and a presidential vote next March, critics see the closure of TVS as symptomatic of a Kremlin drive to control the Russian media.
The press freedom group Reporters Without Borders said the station had been allowed to die by key shareholders close to the Kremlin, who refused to pay the channel's backlog of salaries and debts.
Journalists who sought refuge at TVS, after the independent station TV6 was shut down and state-controlled energy firm Gazprom absorbed the NTV channel, said politics not finance sealed the fate of the station, which flickered off air on Sunday.
"The channel might have closed anyway for the most trivial, financial reason but, by taking this step, they have added a political dimension to their decision," said Mr Yevgeny Kiselyov, a veteran political commentator who arrived at TVS after stints at NTV and TV6.
Even the United States, a rare critic of the Kremlin, voiced concern. "The fact that TVS aired some of Russia's most outspoken voices \ the earlier closures of NTV and TV6 do lend this closure the appearance of possible political motivation," State Department spokesman Mr Philip Reeker said.
Commentators here say Mr Putin's campaign team is not willing to risk any embarrassing television coverage in the run up to elections.
The Kremlin inner circle knows well the power of television to make or break a candidate. They saw their boss's predecessor, the ailing and gaffe-prone Boris Yeltsin, soar from single-figure ratings to a convincing win in 1996 elections after Russia's business tycoon's mustered blanket television support for his cause.
Critics say the closure of TVS is only part of a darkening picture for press freedom here.
Russia's parliament this week passed a bill banning any election media coverage that could be considered "electoral propaganda".
But Reporters Without Borders said the term was so vague that any press outlet criticising a candidate could be shut down.
"This would drastically curtail press coverage during election campaigns and seriously threaten the diversity and freedom of news coverage," the group said.
With a sports channel filling airwaves vacated by TVS, Mr Alexei Venediktov, editor-in-chief of Ekho Moskvy radio station, said the Kremlin now enjoys a near-monopoly on broadcasting.