To a large extent, the editor of Russia’s largest independent press website, Medusa, Ivan Kolpakov, was prepared in advance for war with Ukraine. In fact, also for Corona and remote work. As early as 2014, when the site was set up as a counterpoint to the Kremlin’s media networks and sites and television channels, they made a strategic decision: the site’s system, including its servers, would sit and operate outside of Russia.
Medusa’s team predicted the future and what is happening now in Russia: complete closure of networks, hermetic control of the government over information disseminated and heavy criminal punishment against those who even dare to call what is happening in Ukraine “war”.
An example of this was given this week, when on one of the main channels in Russia, an editor named Maria Obsyanikova mustered the courage and burst into the evening edition with a sign that read “No to war. Do not believe propaganda. You are lying here. Russians against war.” The broadcast was stopped almost immediately, and Obssyankova, who recorded a preliminary video for the protest action Where she explained her motives, Was arrested immediately. When the website of the liberal newspaper Novaya Gazeta wanted to report on the unusual event, they were forced to obscure Obsynkova’s declaration with the problematic word, war.
From his seat in one of the European capitals (full details remained in the system for fear of damaging his security) I had a conversation last weekend with Kolpakov, about how to run an independent press site in wartime, when even in the anti-democratic routine in Russia its existence is under constant threat.
A few minutes before our call, the Russian government announced that it intends to block Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and other sites. The goal: to completely prevent the dissemination of information about the war that does not come directly from government officials.
15 years in prison
Shortly after the invasion of Ukraine began, the Russian parliament passed a law stipulating that anyone spreading “disinformation” about the Russian military, meaning any information that did not come from the government, could face up to 15 years in prison. This is an unusual and extreme law, against which Obsiyanikova’s foam came out, among other things. But for Kolpakov, the current situation is the culmination of a process that has taken place in recent years, years in which freedom of expression in Russia and human rights have diminished, years in which opponents of the regime and whistleblowers like Alexei Nablani (whose prison jellyfish article says ) And social activists were poisoned, imprisoned or exiled. Now Koplakov fears that this will also be the fate of the site’s supporters and partners, who still remain in Russia.
The staff of the independent Russian news site “Medusa” (Photo: “Medusa”)
“They can always chase after people close to us in Russia, or people who have worked with us in the past and written to us, who are still there. It’s a very scary and criminal regime that invents cases against people, so anything can happen,” he explains.
“We have seen the war waged in recent years against activists or supporters or against Nabalani’s father. They just sewed a case for Nabalani’s brother, so there is a fear that the measures taken against activists will now also be directed against journalists. It’s just a matter of time. “
In the last eight years, Medusa has become the largest independent website in Russia, employing about 50 journalists located across Europe and until recently in Russia, attracting millions of Russian-speaking readers, with the website also having an English version. It is considered one of the only media outlets in Russia that is not run by the government, and despite recent blocking attempts, the Moscow government has failed to disable it from activity. Even these days, his version in English and Russian is one of the few reliable sources of information in Russian about what is happening in Ukraine.
An article on the Russian independent website “Medusa” about blocking the media in the country (Photo: “Medusa”)
“I think the public opinion and the real understanding of the public in Russia about the war and its cruelty is critical, if they want to bring it to an end. We need the support of the Russian public, but they first need to know what is really happening in Ukraine, what Putin is doing there and how he uses Russian troops to his advantage. Personal, because of his ambitions and hallucinations.
“Public opinion and the real understanding of the public in Russia about the war and its cruelty is critical, if one wants to bring it to an end”
“People in Russia need to understand that this is a real war, with real victims. The intensity of the tragedy is not really understood. The government deliberately hides it, because many Russians have a family in Ukraine. It is considered almost a sister country, so do not call this operation a war. “Russia is fighting its brothers in Ukraine.”
A big part of your job is to verify facts, to bring the true story of events that happened. How important it is to you?
“It’s a central part of our work, because propaganda is so heavy. The best example is that journalists should not call the war a military operation. They are also trying to paint a whole world narrative against us. Another thing they emphasize is that they do not bomb cities and do not kill civilians, only Destroying the infrastructure of the ‘Nazis’ in Ukraine.
“The administration acted on two axes: on the one hand, heavy censorship of journalists and the media and the delivery of the narrative they want, and on the other, blocking of all independent media outlets within a week or two of the war. I think if we had the opportunity “It would change a lot of public opinion in Russia. I’m pretty sure of that. But it’s impossible.”
How big is the independent press market in Russia? How much it affects at all?
“There are about three to four sites, representing about 20 percent of the media market in Russia. We are the largest, with several million readers. The rest of the media, 80 percent, are TV channels, sites and newspapers that have been controlled by the government for the past 20 years.
“The fact that this war is taking place is largely due to the elimination of free media in Russia in the last decade. This is a big part of the problem. People in Russia get a very distorted picture of reality and should not protest” (In this context, read Medusa’s article on the Russian public Believes in local television more than in the testimonies of relatives from the field in Ukraine; TM).
“Once you kill the media, which provides some connection to reality, of what’s happening in the world on a philosophical level as well, and that’s completely my thesis – some kind of vicious circle is formed. “And lost touch with reality. If leaders do not sometimes get a glimpse of what they are doing or a real response from the public or the press, then they begin to lose touch with reality and how the world works. The consequences could be devastating for Russia and Ukraine combined.”
The silence of the elites
What particularly astonishes Kapolov is the lack of resistance in Russia. “The crime of invading Ukraine is not just a crime of Putin, but of the whole circle around him, all the elites who are silent. They have no reason to oppose because they know the alternative is worse.”
Although they are also affected by the sanctions?
“Yes, despite that. They remember what happened before, and they do not want to lose the power they have gained through it. Even if it falls apart at the moment. It’s amazing that we have not yet seen one person from the system say anything against the invasion, one. “And there is no one to speak out against the invasion? It is clear that many people are against the war, even in politics. It just shows how successful the negative revolution and intimidation are. It is also a result of the elections, which have become less and less free in the last decade.”
I read on your site that many senior figures in the Putin administration and politicians were surprised by the invasion, did not believe it would happen until the last minute.
“You can not say that there is great support for the war, there is mainly a lot of propaganda that tries to produce manipulations on the public.”
“I think the elites have no idea what is going to happen, even the Security Council that approved the invasion. The political backbone did not expect it to start and no one really wanted the war. Putin has this idea, that a large public in Russia supports the war. I do not think that is true, but “
Ivan Kolpakov, editor of the independent Russian website “Medusa” (Photo: “Medusa”)
Currently, all 50 journalists working for Medusa are outside Russia. How do you report what is happening in Russia without journalists on the ground?
“From the moment we got up in 2014 we were outside Russia. It would have seemed like a smart decision then when Putin invaded the Crimea and we understood where the wind was blowing, because the war on freedom of expression had already begun. My colleagues and I had worked on another site before, “A few weeks before the invasion of Crimea, we realized that if we wanted to continue working in the profession – the smartest thing to do was to set up an independent and professional media body based partly outside Russia, and we started as a small project. Today we are dozens of journalists in different parts of Europe.”
According to him, many of the journalists are now in Ukraine or near the border and still, they have ways to get information about what is happening in Russia. And evidently, the story was published shortly after we finished the interview: an article about Putin embarking on an internal purge campaign at his favorite secret agency, the FSB, for fear of harming internal war efforts.
How to run a website remotely?
“Look, it’s hard. We have our sources, our ways of communicating and our meetings, which often run into problems. At first I thought it would not work, and it really hurts the quality of work a bit, but we have no choice. We have to think about how it’s going to work. From now on, because it’s getting a lot harder. “
The enemy of the state
Are you afraid of being overtaken? They will try to harm you in other ways besides blocking the site?
“Am I scared? There is some apprehension. I mean, the administration has cyber and other means on the ground, but we are used to living under threat. I mostly think it is impossible to end the war and fix Russia without a free press, and without the ability to redistribute real and credible information. International networks can no longer enter Russia, and in any case Russians listen mainly to the Russian media and not to CNN or the BBC.They have no ability to reach the local audience.
“Nowadays it is impossible to do activist activity on a street in Russia, even to hang a sign. If you do, you can be arrested and a criminal case opened against you. At the same time, they started a war against the small and independent market of free media, when our block was one of the first things they did in the war .
It has been a year since everything started going crazy in Russia. And now we understand that this was actually a kind of preparation for geopolitical activity in 2022
“Already in April 2021 we had to mark ourselves as a ‘foreign agent’, ie as a body that should not be advertised or collaborated with, and the public should be informed of its intentions. This has happened in Russia before, but this is the first time such a thing has happened to a large site. A disaster, because we lost a lot of advertisers in one moment. We had to find other sources of funding, and we moved to mass funding. It also created a lot of restrictions on the press we do, because in one moment you are marked as the enemy of the state. More people are afraid to talk and cooperate. “He started going crazy in Russia. And now we understand that it was actually a kind of preparation for geopolitical activity in 2022.”
And now with the stopping of the clearing system and the ability to transfer money from Russia, you have lost a lot of supporters not?
“Yes, we had almost 30,000 subsidies cut from Russia overnight because money could not be transferred to the West and many of our subsidies from Russia were stopped. Support from Western countries and European and American citizens, with the understanding that it is important that there is still independent communication in Russia and on Russia. We explain to potential supporters that we are the last free media in Russia “(here you can support” Jellyfish “).
Advertisement to raise funds for the independent site “Medusa” after the Russian government declared the site a “foreign agent” (Photo: “Medusa”)
How did you manage to stay available despite the block??
“Because our servers and operations are outside Russia, it is easy for us to overcome it. And even when we blocked our site in Russia, the site still operates and people there can still bypass the block with a VPN. Before the war we were the largest independent site in Russia, and since the war we grew because people “We are looking for a reliable source. Also at the global level, we are the largest site for English readers who want to catch up on Russia. We are the only ones still covering the war because many independent sites decided to close the site because of the war and large sites chose not to survey it because they are afraid of power.”
So what’s in the headlines right now in Russia, if the media is so censored?
“First of all the economic crisis and blaming the West for sanctions. Besides, they are sending official messages from the Ministry of Defense about the operation, which do not seem really accurate if to be honest.”
Russia is currently facing many sanctions. How much does it affect the public?
“When such a large country, having so far played a major role in the world, is under such large sanctions, it makes things a little unpredictable. I feel the Russian public is angry about the sanctions. They are not blaming Putin, but the West. So that’s another measure. Of the government to serve its own narrative, of the world against Russia.And in my estimation it will only increase, because we are before the crash of the Russian economy.
“I do not think the situation will lead to huge demonstrations against Putin, but maybe I’m pre-pessimistic and negative because I’m a journalist and I always watch the worst. “For me, what is going to happen in Russia will be similar to Belarus, they are going to use all the forces of terrorism and propaganda to hold power in the near future.”