The Russian Forward regularly covers State Senate and State Assembly political races and all the shenanigans that accompany them, especially those campaigns involving members of the Russian immigrant community. Incumbent politicians naturally, have no desire to give up their positions and develop elaborate hurdles for their challengers in primary campaigns or to use the language of the game the disqualification of their rivals (often times with the aid of the very judges appointed by them).

The campaign in question here, initially interested mainly the Russian community, but now thanks to the New York Sun newspaper the primary campaign in Coney Island and Brighton Beach between State Assembly member Adele Cohen and her only challenger, Inna Kaminsky, has come to the attention of hundreds of thousands of English speaking residents in the Big Apple.

Jack Newfield, a journalist at the New York Sun, reported literally two days before the primary that Adele Cohen won, that an interview by Vadim Yarmolinets with Ms. Cohen would cast a shadow on her image; the Russian language daily Novoye Russkoye Slovo withheld it from publication. As the tape of the interview confirms, the tone of the discussion was terse, to say the least. The conversation turned to the infringement of Brighton Beach’s Russian voters’ rights. Yarmolinets reminded the Assembly member about the uncomfortable facts regarding the last minute moving of polling places from their previous locations to new locations, which forced elderly voters to travel long distances in order to cast their ballots, about the transfer of Russian-speaking election monitors out of Russian districts, about the diluting of Russian-Jewish electoral districts, and about last year's exclusion of popular Russian-Jewish businessman and philanthropist Anatoliy Eizenberg from the ballots with the help of a partisan judge. Then Yarmolinets posed a question to Cohen regarding the rise in crime in Coney Island, particularly about the increase in the number of murders.

Newfield asserts that Cohen replied saying she had not heard about anything of the sort, although in 2002 she signed letters to the Board of Elections requesting the redistricting of several electoral districts – Newfield said the Sun has copies of this correspondence. Then, according to Yarmolinets’ recorder, Cohen said, "I’m ashamed of you and your community." Yarmolinets considered this an attack on Russian-speaking immigrants and asked if it was so. Cohen cut the interview off, stating "You are free to go."

The “freed-up” Yarmolinets hurried off to NRS to present the editorial board with the spectacular information so relevant to the upcoming primaries. However, the breaking news didn’t break, but not because Yarmolinets couldn’t manage the interview or decided against offending the unshakable Cohen on the eve of her battle for office. The news was not made public because the influential Russian-language decided not to go ahead.

So then, why did Yarmolinets’ article not appear in the NRS? It did not appear for the same reason that NRS did not run a story by Vladimir Kozlovsky about the legal trial of Leon Rabinovich, former director of the Globe Institute of Technology, and for the same reason that another article by Kozlovsky on the cancellation of a speaking engagement in Brighton Beach by former KGB General Oleg Kalugin never saw publication.

The New York Sun wrote: “Yarmolinets suspects that his article was not allowed to be published because of the unusual conflict of interests related to Marina Kovalev, an advisor to Cohen, and due to influences of NRS advertising policy on the editorial office of that newspaper.” In response to the Sun correspondents’ questions over the phone, Kovalev admitted to receiving compensation from advertisers in NRS, and stated that she has an interest in ensuring that newspapers project a positive image of her clients. Kovalev also confirmed that she works for Adele Cohen, although refused to disclose how her services as a consultant on matters concerning the Russian-language press are compensated.

According to information from sources close to the newspaper, Kovalev threatened to stop advertising in Russian-language papers if they failed to publish favorable opinions about her clients. This quiet practice is dictated by the dual role Kovalev plays as power broker in politics and advertising. Before suddenly hanging up the telephone, Kovalev positively rejected any notions regarding her involvement in “the mishaps of the Yarmolinets article."

I hope that Kovalev will not deny our telephone conversation, during which she actively tried to discourage me from publishing Alexander Grant's article about the same bribe. Some people even more powerful than Kovalev not only called the editorial staff, but also the management of the Forward Association, attempting to prevent Grant's article from being printed; someone even offered to pay for silence.

The morning after our conversation with Kovalev we received a fax from Tatiana Garelik, an administrator at the Globe Institute of Technology, stating the following: "Dear Sir, please remove our advertisement from your newspaper beginning from 9 August, 2004." Exactly a day later, on August 10th, perhaps sensing the potential awkwardness of the situation, Garelik sent another fax to the Russian Forward stating, "... we do not intend to collaborate with your newspaper any longer. We did not obtain the expected return from our advertisement; therefore the continuation of our collaboration is simply ineffective. To clear any and all possible rumors, we declare, precisely what this is the sole reason for the ending of our advertising campaign with you. Rumors concerning other reasons for our cancellation can be considered slander and will serve as grounds for adopting corresponding measures."

In ten years of work in the Israeli press and in five years here in New York, this is the first time I am honored with such a magnificent "Soviet" masterpiece, beginning with such formal explanations and by no means formal threats.