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Independent media constitute a crucial component of a liberal democracy, especially for the critical role they can play in advancing the pace of democratization. In the late Soviet era, after Gorbachev lifted state control of the media as part of his glasnost policy, they helped release the hold of communist ideology on society & then went on in the 1990s to mobilize public support for democratic development. Essentially the media constituted the "engine for democratization." More recently, however, the media have become less influential. This chapter focuses on why this has happened & what its implications are for the future of democracy in Russia. J. Stanton