Recently a couple of reporters for a Moscow newspaper did just that.
"We, the generation of the 1960's, have fought and won the fight against political censorship," he said in a recent interview with a Moscow newspaper.
Like almost every Moscow newspaper, many of which are sustained by wealthy sponsors, Sevodnya lost money - at one point, $7 million a year.
Obituaries appeared not just in Moscow newspapers and magazines but worldwide.
But even as the nation tries to steady itself for the possibility of more attacks, Moscow newspapers expressed doubts about the Government's preparations.
Moscow newspapers briefly reported on the atomic bombings with no commentary of any kind.
Moscow newspapers had become as candid as my shopping companion.
"Recently, the rebels surrounded the house of my deputy for security," he told a Moscow newspaper last month.
In a rare interview last year, he told a Moscow newspaper that the orchestra's main hope for survival might be to become a state orchestra.
A recent article in a Moscow newspaper said the document was probably a fake, but Swedish officials do not know the basis for that report.