"For the Sarmats,there's only one pleasure. RIGA - Ever since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the US president has emphasized that we are not at war with the Russian people, who live in a totalitarian and increasingly authoritarian regime, so we must find opportunities to communicate with these people in order to tell them the truth, US Ambassador to Latvia Christopher Robinson emphasized i. So we arranged for our pets to be brought straight to Riga, which cost even more money. Many of the people who had contacted the tip line were family members who said that their loved ones had been sent to Ukraine with little or no training, and without essential supplies such as thermal underwear, warm socks, or body armor. TV Rain does not support the army of the Russian federation.". Riga was already home to Meduza, arguably the most respected Russian-language news outlet. According to Novaya Gazeta's Kirill Martynov, journalists are briefed onhow to present stories,paint Putin in a good light, explain the war and report on what is happening in Russia. Heres what happened with Victoria Lee, special correspondent for the small, Moscow-based online publication Holod, who writes about topics related to social injustice like the prison system and domestic violence. In the war you have to choose, she added. It's one of Russia's leading television programs discussing the invasion of Ukraine. We still made it to Riga that day, she said. A historian envisions a settlement among Russia, Ukraine, and the West. Local journalists have been very supportive to newcomers like him, Kovalev said. When we were bombing Odesa, we had a local journalist on the air, Fishman said. Five nights a week, across the world's biggest country, millions sit down to watch the TV talk show, Evening with Vladimir Solovyov. But the way the draft went down, the way people have submitted to it and gone to war when their chances of survival are less than fifty per centI mean, they are spending their own money on gear so they can be shipped off to be killed! TV Rain's editor-in-chief, Tikhon Dzyadko,said the Russian government was struggling to sellthe war. Around 50 journalists have gathered here for the first welcome and networking event put on specifically for them since many Russian reporters started arriving in the Latvian capital around two and a half months ago. 2023 Cond Nast. The atmosphere at the gathering is relaxed, even jovial at times. This, in turn, had made TV Rain prone to the kind of misstep that now had it fighting for survival in Latvia. (The Financial Times has also . We first wanted to wait for our pets and the Pfizer vaccine, but there were problems with both, the 24-year-old Lee said. These journalists have been moving from one Airbnb to another, he told me. Last March, the countrys foreign minister, Edgars Rinkvis, tweeted, As #Russia closes independent media and introduces complete censorship, I reiterate Latvias readiness to host persecuted Russian journalists and help them in any way we can.. Around 18 to 22 million unique visitors view its YouTube channel alone every month, with up to 80 percent of them from inside Russia, said Tikhon Dzyadko, the stations editor in chief. - , . Latvia sees the war in Ukraine as an echo of its own fight for freedom. What if they start killing us here?, Many Russian journalists seem to have settled in central Riga, which is tiny and dense with Art Nouveau buildings. Here in Riga I feel comfortable and free. We have common values, and they are the only things that will make it possible for us to survive this war., As Sile spoke, the color seemed slowly to return to Dzyadkos face. In Latvia, Anna Mongayt, TV Rains creative director, has felt a sense of discomfort and shame, for being from Russia, for speaking Russian in stores and restaurants. After arriving in Latvia, she learned that most local families had been affected by mass deportations carried out during the Soviet occupation. Many Russian ethnic minorities in those countries support the Kremlin in its claims of the unity of Russian people, and their ranks are being swelled by thousands of Russian arrivals since the start the war. And we had a dog, which we couldnt just take on any flight. These circumstances made him leave Russia in the middle of the night through the Estonian border city of Narva. She meant that her city wasnt being shelled and her loved ones hadnt been killeda litany that, a year into the war, no longer required articulation. A top Russian TV journalist has dramatically quit and left the country in protest over Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, it is reported. Even as he heard the words coming out of his mouth, Korostelev wondered what had come over him. More than fifty reporters crowded into an event space on the top floor of a Marriott Hotel. A billboard in Moscow in August featuring a Russian soldier. This year Levits was among the dignitaries laying flowers across Riga. In Moscow, I used to work from home, making calls and writing text messages, and going to the studio once a week to record the program, he said. A kitchen, which doubles as the makeup studio, connects to the Moscow Times. It also has a cable channel in five countries with large Russian-speaking populations. The New Yorker may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. But in the world of social media, as in the world of live television, everything is iterative. We have a wide-ranging spectrum of journalists and media outlets here with different needs, Sloga told me. Kotrikadze told me that TV Rains troubles in Latvia happened because we still own our sense of belonging to Russia. We were in a small conference room, where none of the more junior staff members could see her. For TV Rain, the second-largest number of viewers is in Ukraine. However, Russias war of aggression against Ukraine has changed the security situation dramatically, also for Latvia, she added. Since the 2014 Russian occupation of Crimea, TV Rain reporters and producers have spent a tremendous amount of time building relationships with Ukrainian sources. He was not soliciting matriel for them, he added. He said hosting Russian journalists in Latvia was part of the fight against Russian imperialism. But there are also tech workers, entrepreneurs, designers, and actors whove decided they would prefer exile to living in an authoritarian state. Since the start of the mobilization in September, TV Rains audience has grown fivefold. At least several hundred Russian journalists have arrived in Riga since late February. We had an editorial meeting that lasted four hours, and at the end realized that we are an international company and we have to apologize.. Other Russian journalists said they've had no problems with the authorities. 'New Gazette') is an independent Russian newspaper known for its critical and investigative coverage of Russian political and social affairs. A prominent Russian journalist who has been vocal about human rights abuses in Chechnya was attacked on Tuesday. Kotrikadze read out one response: Im sorry, but Im in the process of moving to Italy for the winter. Dzyadko, seated across from her, said, We are in the process of moving, toowe just dont know where we are going. Watch "Russia's Info War" on YouTube and ABC iview. ', "And we need to provide them real stories about the war and the consequences and crisis inside Russiato help them just to survive in this situation and to rebuild.". Id almost forgotten what it feels like to be an outcast, Valeria Ratnikova, a twenty-three-year-old news anchor, told me. In the Baltic States, though, attempts to humanize Russian soldiers are particularly contentious. Korostelev had discovered that bringing attention to these reports often resulted in the men being withdrawn from frontline positions. Leonid Ragozin, Russian "opposition" journalist in Latvia, as promoter of Kremlin's narratives - InformNapalm.org (English) Leonid Ragozin, Russian "opposition" journalist in Latvia, as promoter of Kremlin's narratives on 10/14/2021 | | News | World Print This Post ru cz ua tr en lt sv no dk at He and Kotrikadze would soon be moving to Amsterdam, along with a number of other TV Rain staffers. Back in Russia, police had shown up at her house in the countryside, thrown her to the floor, and handcuffed her; another group of police raided her apartment in the city of Pskov, where her husband was staying. At that point, we thought: Well probably stay in Riga for much longer, Dolin said. Id only go back if theres a regime change, said Dolin. In the past, the stations executives had been invited to attend such sessions. So it turns out this was all part of the special operation, one typical tweet read. One of them, Ayaz Yakupov, spoke on camera. At least I dont have to pack on an hours notice, she said. Murdered Russian journalists (1 C, 7 P) Russian music journalists (3 P) Russian music critics (25 P) N. Russian newspaper editors (2 C, 31 P) O. Russian opinion journalists (2 C, 16 P) P. Russian photojournalists (14 P) R. Russian reporters and correspondents (1 C, 13 P) S. TV Rain had a presence in Amsterdam because of one person: the Dutch media entrepreneur Derk Sauer, who moved from the Netherlands to the U.S.S.R. in 1989 to launch Moscow, an English-language glossy magazine about the Soviet capital that was modelled on New York. On April 21, they tried three different vaccination points in Tbilisi for their second shots, but without success. Korostelev, who was twenty-seven, came from a small town near Moscow, and got his first job at TV Rain by winning an on-air contest in college. Destroyed vehicles in the Kherson region of Ukraine in October. The team left Russia to continue showing the reality of Russias war to Russian people, said Vera Krichevskaya, a TV Rain co-founder based in London. It means that their consciousness is altered.. Id last seen her the previous spring, just after she left Russia; Id sat next to her at a caf in Istanbul as she told her parents, in Moscow, that she would not be returning. Sauer was a former radical student activist, a self-described Maoist turned war correspondent. Bianna Golodryga speaks to Mikhail Zygar, Russian journalist and author of "War and Punishment: The Story of Russian Oppression and Ukrainian Resistance," on the strength of Putin's leadership. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his country will more than double the number of its troops in Latvia to help shore up NATO's eastern flank against potential Russian aggression . He created the first Russian website to expose Kremlin propaganda lies, said Yuri Bershidsky, a fact-checker who works for Russian-language The Insider, an online publication known for its joint investigation with Bellingcat and CNN into the poisoning of Russian opposition politician Alexey Navalny. Latvians are not allowed to hold dual Russian citizenship. Global Shining Light Award , his publication was being blocked in Russia, open offices in Riga for its Russia services, a common intimidation tactic of pro-war supporters, Nobel laureate and editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta, Dmitry Muratov, Kyiv Independents Olga Rudenko: How to Run a Successful Media Start-Up in a Time of War, Prison Journalist Shows the Need For a Free Press Even Behind Bars, How Investigative Journalists Can Fight Back Against New, Enhanced Surveillance Threats. But Mongayt spent the first nine years of her life in Odesa, and still deeply identifies with Ukraine. Instead, they're trying to replace it with a censored Russian version, RUTUBE. Andrew Roth in Moscow and Pjotr Sauer in Amsterdam Thu 23 Feb 2023 03.00 EST Last modified on Thu 23 Feb 2023 13.44 EST Mikhail Afanasyev wants your letters. "TV Rain does not support Russian soldiers on the front. She looked exhausted. Ive completely disappeared from cultural life in Russia, and I havent appeared yet in the cultural life of Latvia, he said. V.P.N. They did whatever they wanted with civilians, he said of his colleagues. A number of major Western media outlets have also relocated their staff and operations from Moscow to Riga. Im always wanting to explain myself, she said. She added that her country had issued nearly 470 visas to Russian journalists and their families since the outbreak of the war. After fleeing to Latvia, exiled Russian journalists deal with how to cut through the Kremlin's propaganda - The Globe and Mail After fleeing to Latvia, exiled Russian journalists deal. Editors at TV Rain told me that an illustrator had turned in the map so late that no one had had a chance to check it, but that the use of our military was no mistake: it was an acknowledgment of responsibility. Three TV Rain journalists resigned in solidarity with Mr. Korostelev. Sonya Groysman, a twenty-eight-year-old TV Rain correspondent based in Riga, had been able to interview Safonovs bodyguard, a sergeant named Vyacheslav Doronichev. When I visited, Mikhail Fishman, who hosts a weekly current-affairs program, was recording his show. Russian journalists set up shop in Latvia after Kremlin crackdown As Moscow tightens its grip on the country's independent media, a group of self-exiled reporters are hoping to evade the. To tell people around me that I have nothing to do with the state thats waging this warnot the country itself but its government., Two weeks earlier, the Kremlin had branded Mongayt a foreign agent, a punitive designation applied to about two hundred and fifty individuals who annoy the Russian government. In the Baltic States, attempts to humanize Russian troops are particularly contentious. The Kyiv Independent was launched just months before the start of the war in Ukraine. Kids would change schools again. Reporting from the Outside: Lessons from Investigative Journalists in Exile, How Germanys Journalists Built a Crowdfunding Campaign to Save Russias Meduza, Investigating Russia and the War in Ukraine. "Like they don't remember that Russia has started this invasion. To revisit this article, select My Account, thenView saved stories, To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories, On December 1st, TV Rain, an independent Russian television station that had been banned from Russian cable and satellite channels, was in its fifth month of broadcasting from Riga, the capital of Latvia. Some of it is very practical, like taking care of their legal status or finding schools for their children. Now the biggest worry in the newsroommore immediate than the worry about moving againwas that Ukrainians would stop speaking to them. But I know that the Latvian government and NGOs are doing everything to help Russian journalists, and were very grateful to them. As a Russian citizen, getting a residence permit is out of the question at the moment. Im struggling, but my situation is not the worst and I didnt sell my soul. For now, he focuses on his YouTube channel and on writing film reviews and festival reports for Meduza. To some Latvians, however, it sounded like a statement of allegiance. Some are activists and people who protested against the war. The team left Russia to continue showing the reality of Russias war to Russian people, said Vera Krichevskaya, a TV Rain co-founder based in London. "An aggressive Russia is a threat to Europe, to the West and to democracy. His grandparents were political prisoners who were freed by Mikhail Gorbachev; his mother is a human-rights activist and journalist still working in Moscow. The problems started in December when a host of a live program was ad-libbing about the appalling conditions for frontline Russian soldiers. Three days later, TV Rain learned that it was losing its office and studio space in Riga. She added that by covering the mobilization, TV Rain could reach beyond opposition supporters to the apolitical majority of Russian people. Anatoly Kurmanaev is a correspondent based in Mexico City, covering Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. Faced with losing their editorial independence, several staffers left Lenta.ru in 2014 and launched Meduza as an independent media outlet in Latvia. And they're fighting back. "It's crazy," he told me. If you have any tips or witness accounts to share about the draft and the conscripts experience in the armed forces and at the front line, and if youd like to discuss the problems in the Russian military, then contact us, he said. From Istanbul, she went to Tbilisi, then to Riga. One of the first statements I made on air when it began was This is an unpopular war, and Putin has already lost, Fishman told me. Russia protested on Friday after Latvia charged several journalists from the Rossiya Segodnya news agency with violating European Union sanctions. Many were forced to leave everything behind, possibly for good. Alexey Korostelev, who was hosting that afternoons episode of the newscast Here and Now, was working out of the Tbilisi studio, a generic space in an office tower on the outskirts of the city. In the first months of the war, Latvia issued about two hundred and sixty visas to media workers fleeing Russia, and nearly as many to their family members. After spending a couple of days in Vilnius, they flew to Georgia, where Holods new office was supposed to be. But, she went on, many of them dont have enough money to pay bills, let alone buy plane tickets, and moving again would be re-traumatizing for them and their children. What Prigozhins Half-Baked Coup Could Mean for Putins Rule. But what makes TV Rain able to speak to Russians in Russia is exactly what makes it suspect outside of Russia. This, as the staff came to learn, was the moment that the station lost access to officials in the administration of Volodymyr Zelensky. Meduza is an independent news service run by Russian reporters that was set up in neighbouring Latvia eight years ago. In 2019, one of Meduzas reporters was arrested on trumped-up drug-possession charges, but he was released after a few days, following unprecedented protests. Most of its journalists had fled Moscow during the first week of Russias full-scale invasion of Ukraine, dispersing to Georgia, Armenia, Turkey, Israel, and elsewhere, only to discover in exile that, to much of the world, they represented a country waging genocidal war. On Tuesday, however, days after a correspondent made an unscripted call to provide unspecified aid to Russian soldiers, the Latvian media regulator revoked the channels broadcasting license because of what it called threats to national security. As Latvian and Ukrainian authorities accuse the station of supporting Russias war effort, TV Rain is now engulfed in the biggest crisis of its turbulent 12-year history. I couldnt go to Tbilisi or Yerevan as plane tickets were already prohibitively expensive. It seemed like proof of something many in Latvia had suspected all alongeven Russians who claimed to oppose the Kremlin were secretly supporting its war in Ukraine. He did not mean that TV Rains work had helped provide basic necessities at the front. But, somehow, he had said it. I propose we see each other as humans. To that end, RFE/RL will hire Russian journalists and social media experts. Meduzas first major misstep, she recalled, was the use of the word tyolochkia rough equivalent of chicksto refer to women, in a 2015 social-media post. She thought a lot about another kind of privilege, too: Ratnikova has interviewed the wives and sisters of conscripts; she could imagine being one of them, had she been born in a different family and in a different city. The nearly two dozen staff members present saw the same thing come across their screens. Nanna Heitmann for The New York Times By Ben Smith Published Aug. 22, 2021 Updated Aug. 31, 2021 RIGA, Latvia There's a certain kind of American podcast where two young journalists. Ekaterina Kotrikadze, the news director, is Georgian. Yes! Russians are among the world's biggest users of the American website. Our apartment with a windowless bedroom in Tbilisi wasnt much cheaper.. All I can do is work, sleep, and rest. March 11, 2022 Eurasia Program Home / Articles / Latvia's First Response to Russia's War in Ukraine The shock wave of the Russian attack against Ukraine is sensed worldwide, yet the closer one stands to the epicenter of tragedy, the stronger one feels the trembling of the ground. "If I go back to Russia, there's probably a criminal case waiting for me." She added, though, that TV Rain would continue streaming on social media in other countries until it obtains a new license. Is Latvia supposed to be thrilled that we come here, bringing with us the Russian secret police, from which we are escaping? he said. In "The Red Hotel," Alan Philps, a former Moscow correspondent, documents the lives of Western journalists under Stalin and traces through lines to media relations in Russia today. It reminds me of St. Petersburg, where I always wanted to live.. The special pet delivery service from Moscow to Tbilisi was delayed, as the border was closed from time to time due to snowy weather. Still, he stayed in the country. To trouble NATO's dreams!". The Russian journalist from Abakan. It's not just madness. Is Putin a great guy? However, Kotrikadze said they were reaching tens of millions of Russians by putting their content on YouTube. Sile had grown so frustrated with Latvian authorities that she was beginning to think TV Rains journalists might need to find another country to host them. Now they can't watch it unless they go on YouTube. Early on, two Baltic states were exceptions: Lithuania, which had long served as a base for Russias political opposition, and Latvia. We cannot allow wording that may cast doubt on our position, and for this reasonKotrikadze swallowedwe have decided to stop working with Alexey Korostelev, starting today. Her speech slowed and she appeared about to cry. When he started receiving anonymous threats on Facebook in the days after Russias invasion of Ukraine, Dolin decided to take his family to Riga initially just for a couple of weeks. Dzyadko received a work visa to the Netherlands. The following day, a clip of his slipup spread on social media. "It is very important. "On that day, the Russian Parliament adopted a law that made our profession a criminal offense," the 41-year-old said, referring to the law under which publishing something described as "fake news" about the war in Ukraine is punishable with up to 15 years in prison. I asked her how long she had been in the Netherlands; when she told me that shed been lucky enough to have a car and some gas in the tank in the first week of March, 2022, I realized that it wasnt Russia she had leftit was Ukraine. TV Rain has a small studio and an adjacent room full of desks. But Kirill Martynov of Novaya Gazeta believes a lot of people in Latvia just don't want them. But most of the audienceperhaps tens of millions of people a monthseems to be living in Russia. He made the promise at the NATO summit in the capital of Lithuania, a country . Russian propagandist Vladimir Solovyov was jubilant about Latvia stripping TV Rain of its licence, charging that the West "has now completely drowned in its own hypocrisy and lies". But for all the rhetoric of democratic solidarity, Latvia's hospitality to the exiled journalists has proven to have limits. She's a presenter on TV Rain, a private company that was widely known as Russia's last independent television network. She talked about how shed helped Russian journalists open bank accounts and get cell-phone contracts. When the newscast cut back to Korostelev, an editor in the studio, whom Korostelev could hear in his earpiece, told him that the next segment was delayed. Kotrikadze, who was then fifteen, was in Georgia visiting relatives; her mothers body was never found. Latvia is committed to its policy of supporting independent media, including those forced to flee Russia, Diana Eglite, spokeswoman for the Latvian Foreign Ministry, said on Tuesday. At one point, Anna Mongayt, TV Rains creative director and that nights host, said of Groysmans source, He must certainly be headed for trial. Groysman cringed. And his supporters say that portraying all Russian citizens as aggressors merely helps to perpetuate Mr. Putins rule by marginalizing his opponents. Banks wouldnt accept them as clients, landlords wouldnt rent to them, and residents in Tbilisi and other cities painted Russians go home on street corners. But Meduza has still found a way to report from Russia, using what Timchenko has termed proxy reporting. Meduza assigns discreet information-gathering tasks to four or five different people on the ground; writers and editors in Riga then put the story together. In the months following Russias annexation of Crimea in 2014, a few dozen came. In the doorway, I bumped into Andrei Goryanov, a journalist I knew from Moscow. Two days later, they found out their flight was delayed when they were already at the airport. On that day, the Russian Parliament adopted a law that made our profession a criminal offense, the 41-year-old said, referring to the law under which publishing something described as fake news about the war in Ukraine is punishable with up to 15 years in prison. We consider this war to be criminal and vile, and we consider the draft criminal and senseless. But it's proving slow, clunky and deeply unpopular. Most journalists I spoke to dont have plans to return to Russia at least as long as the man who forced them to leave is still in power. Pasta nod., Riga, LV-1011, Latvia. And now life is becoming harder for Russian nationals who live in. Aleksey was looking for new allies, was trying to destroy the walls of this ghetto into which the Kremlin is trying to corral the liberal opposition, wrote Abbas Galiamov, a Russian political scientist, referring to Mr. Korostelev. According to Gunta Sloga, executive director of the Baltic Centre for Media Excellence, Russian media workers have also gone to Turkey, Israel, and the Czech Republic. "This is something that we have to do and we know how to do," she said. That morning, she awoke at four and dressed in a burgundy blazer. Familiar Ikea furniturea wooden dining table, a plush armchairshared the room with an open gym bag and a pile of clean laundry. The Real Russia. This seems to be the waterline. Latvias defense minister, Artis Pabriks, went further, calling for the expulsion of the channels journalists. We know there are millions of people in Russia who dont like whats going on. The authors original photos are also republished with his permission. (All three countries joined the European Union in 2004.) YouTube is proving to be a major chink in Russia's censorship armour. More about Anatoly Kurmanaev, A version of this article appears in print on. Novaya Gazeta is publishing online through encrypted channels, providing links to VPNs to bypass Russian firewalls. "People say, 'What do you mean,do you want to be like China?' This time, the council met behind closed doors, and by 9 A.M. had announced its decision: TV Rain was a threat to national security, and its broadcast license would be revoked. Some of their visas were set to expire in the spring. Sat 15 Jul 2023 21.01 EDT. But the use of this phrase broke Latvias digital media law, creating, according to the government, the false impression that TV Rain may have been referring to the Latvian military. I know I do. A producer near me let out an exasperated sigh. And we expect these people, while they are experiencing all of this, while they are also unable to stop work, to be heroes, to continue fighting against the war, and to make no mistakes, she said.

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