600 Seconds

600 Seconds was an immensely popular TV news program that aired in the Soviet Union and briefly in post-Soviet Russia. It was a nightly broadcast from Leningrad TV with anchor Alexander Nevzorov. The program of the glasnost period was distinguished by its fast tempo and the display of the countdown from 600 to zero. The anchor Nevzorov used the broadcast in order to criticize corrupt Soviet officials and promote preserving the Soviet Union. Later – during the early Yeltsin years – the broadcast became a mouthpiece of Russian Nationalist opposition to Yeltsin's policies and was banned twice – definitely after Yeltsin's victory in his conflict with the rebel parliament. The Letter of Forty-Two called for it to be cancelled.