Bovin was the object of heavy criticism from the party establishment for his position on the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, which he vocally opposed, instead praising the reforms in the CSSR that led to the Prague Spring. Discredited in the eyes of the Central Committee, Bovin was suspended from his office and transferred to the Soviet newspaper "Izvestia", where he worked as a political commentator from 1972 to 1991, thus beginning his journalistic career.