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You can’t mention the war, but there’s not much else to talk about.
The journalists of Novaya Gazeta, whose editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov was co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize last year, naturally want to tell what is happening in Ukraine. Reporting is their bread and butter. And since they have always been involved in charities, they want to help the victims of the invasion of Ukraine.
So they improvise through a difficult and complicated moment while state censors smack them in the back.
This week, Novaya Gazeta announced that they would be auctioning off Muratov’s Nobel medal to try to raise funds for Ukrainian refugees.
“We consulted with the Nobel Committee and told them that this in no way means that we reject our award or that Dmitry does not need it. On the contrary, it’s the most valuable and important thing he has and that’s why it can’t just stay with him. The peace prize should be for peace. It will be our contribution, Dmitry’s contribution, to peace,” deputy editor Nadezhda Prusenkova told Fox News.
Displaced Ukrainians on a train bound for Poland bid farewell in Lviv, western Ukraine, on Tuesday, March 22, 2022. The UN refugee agency says more than 3.5 million people have fled Ukraine since the Russian invasion, crossing another milestone in an exodus that has led to Europe’s worst refugee crisis since World War II. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
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But the gesture appears to have brought swift retaliation from the Russian government. Shortly after announcing her fundraiser, Novaya Gazeta received an unspecified but ominous warning from state censor Roskomnadzor. They are still waiting to know exactly what their transgression was.
“In the past we got fines, but it seems to be more serious and we see it as some kind of psychological pressure on the editors,” Prusenkova said.
Novaya Gazeta has followed the rules laid down by the Kremlin. Not using the words “war” or “invasion” in the first place to describe what is going on in Ukraine.
“You can’t describe what’s happening in Ukraine with five letters,” says Prusenkova, referring to the Russian word for war, which is written with five letters. “They call it a ‘special operation’. You cannot discuss armed forces activities in Ukraine unless you use official Defense Ministry press releases.”
Following the rules, Prusenkova says, is “morally complicated,” but they’re trying because their readers have asked them to. 95% said they wanted Novaya’s writers to keep writing and they can obviously read between the lines. Matters related to the war, such as demonstrations and economic hardship, can also be covered by the restrictions on using the “five-letter word”.
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council in Yerevan, Armenia. (Shutterstock)
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Weighing how Russians feel about this war, Prusenkova believes that 50 percent of Russians are opposed to the war, despite the Kremlin’s claims that opposition is only a fraction of that figure. She attributes her solid support for the war to the fact that in the vast country of Russia, many people don’t use the internet or read newspapers. They get their news from state television, which many people inside and outside Russia call propaganda.
“I think this special operation has been prepared for over ten years. The propaganda managed to convince half the country. They sincerely believe Putin and TV,” says Prusenkova. She adds that they have correspondents across the country who speak to these people, who don’t tie sugar shortages and non-working credit cards to the “special operation.”
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But she senses that a kind of breaking point is emerging. “Ukraine is Russia’s closest neighbor,” she says, and most people have a boyfriend, grandmother, grandfather or cousin there. “If what Putin says contradicts what the aunt says in Mariupol, then families start to break up.” But eventually she thinks they will start to understand what is going on.
“I think people will become aware and many will understand that this is not the way to refer to another country,” she says, adding that the process will be slow. “But,” she continues, saying the state television worker who walked onto the set during a live broadcast with an anti-war sign could have been a game changer. “We keep working for that. We exist so that something happens, something changes.”