If counted from the day of his inauguration rather than the day he became acting president, Vladimir Putin is now halfway through his term in office. This date was marked by three events that people hoping to strengthen liberalism and democracy could call good news. Good news, that is, if it weren't for a few doubts...

These three events are Putin's proposals for tax reforms that would encourage the development of small business, the commander of the united military force in Chechnya's order to carry out "soft cleansing," and the victory of Yevgeny Kiselyov's team in the bid for the TV6 broadcasting license. But though these all look like steps in the right direction, concerns remain. This is especially true of the TV6 case, which provoked the most open public discussion.

The fate of Kiselyov and his team served as a test for the Kremlin on freedom of speech. Kiselyov's team, recognized as one of the most professional in Russia, lost their outlets and their jobs twice in the course of one year, first at NTV, then at TV6. The TV6 case was not only an attack on freedom of speech, but also on property rights, since the channel, which had no debts, was taken from the owner of 75 percent of its shares. After this, few in Russia or abroad could believe the Kremlin's assertions that this was just a commercial dispute and had no political overtones.

When TV6 was pulled off the air in January, it was a shock for the public and sent ripples around the world that did nothing for the Kremlin's image. It looks a logical next step to let the TV6 journalists set up a new broadcasting company, win the license and get back all they had before, as it were. That is how the Kremlin wants it to look, but in reality, the team won't have the freedom they had before.

One can only guess at the behind-the-scenes talks and the pressure that convinced the journalists to join forces with a powerful team of businesspeople and politicians close to the Kremlin. The most prominent figure in this lineup is former Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov, known for his dislike of journalists.

It wasn't just chance that after the tender results were announced, Primakov and his partner in the company, Arkady Volsky, began talking about "internal censorship" for journalists. Volsky, who is head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs and used to work as an assistant to Soviet-era Communist Party boss Yury Andropov, proposed the term "self-censorship" rather than "internal censorship." Then someone suggested the term "self-limitation" so as to avoid the word censorship altogether. Whatever the terms, the TV channel's new overseers didn't hide that they think it perfectly normal to bring back the "internal editor" of the Soviet times that became a symbol of an enslaved conscience more difficult to bear than any censor appointed from outside.

This points to what is really happening: The independent journalists viewers all know will once again appear on the screens, and Primakov and his colleagues will make sure that behind the democratic decorations a completely different play takes place.

The same doubts apply to the order in Chechnya about "soft cleansing." These operations have long since become senseless and cruel punitive actions. The military behaves as it pleases during these operations, looting civilians, killing people using defense from rebels as a pretext and arresting men not part of any fighting for supposed checks, after which they vanish, their bodies occasionally turning up in a common grave somewhere.

The new order bans the military from covering their faces with masks and hiding the numbers of their armored vehicles. It also requires operation commanders to identify themselves when entering a house and to draw up protocols of searches and checks carried out.

This was all immediately dubbed "soft cleansing" by wits. Indeed, it's hard to imagine a Chechen family demanding that a group of armed soldiers searching their home draw up a truthful and accurate protocol of everything they do. Whatever the case, attempts to solve a serious social and political problem through bureaucratic procedures don't promise any real results.

The authorities look to have more honest motives regarding the third piece of news – Putin's decision to reduce the tax burden for small businesses. This really is an important step that has been a decade too long in coming. Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin proposed what looks at first glance like a logical tax-break scheme, but entrepreneurs say the bureaucrats could easily manipulate the plan to make business even harder, not simpler. Only practice will show which side is right.

In a sense, all of this is good news. But this is little consolation for those who reject the return of even the smallest dose and mildest form of totalitarianism.