And the 360 days since Russia’s invasion has become the front line in the global battle for democracy. It’s a fight that is being fought on the airwaves as well as on the battlefield. Putin’s minions are working over to control the message overseas and at home. Under a law passed last year. Journalists in Russia can be jailed for up to 1 for reporting what the Kremlin considers fake news about what its military is doing. And to wit, calling the war in Ukraine a war could land one in prison. And because of this crackdown, many in the industry have fled, including my guest today, who run the Russian independent news station TV rain. In 2022 the network famously ended its last newscast with an antiwar message before cutting to an old perform of Tchaikovsky’s Ballet Swan Lak Today, the rain operates in exile Broadcast ing its content on You Transit Girl is the network’s ed in chief and Ekaterina regards an anchor and news director. Welcome both of you. It’s good to see you. Katya, let me let me start with You are at the Munich Security C for the first time in the conference’s history. No Russian officials have been i and said the chairman of the con tweeted this. We want to discuss Russia’s future with Russian opposition leaders and exiled people. Their voices need to be heard and amplified. Katya UN TV rain are among those exiled Russ What is the mood there one year into the war now? Well, Brianna, it’s very complic US to talk about Russia here in Munich security conference. It has just been closed. During the three days I was talking to Russian liberal you know, dissidents, opposition representatives of the civil soc and also with European politicians and experts and all of them are are saying that Russia should be relaunched as a country, as a state, that a invasion of Ukraine, everything has changed. And these people, these European Western leaders are looking for a different approach to Russ And they’re asking themselves the questions about whether it is really possible to see this new country, to see Russia as a democratic state which is, I mean, not obvious for a lot of people here. So the representatives of Russian civil society, all of them, they they’re all in They fled the country just as we So they were trying to explain that there is a chance for Russia to rebuild a democracy And I truly believe in this, too So to you and I guess the question is, are you and other exiles out or does this speak to a larger i that many Russians are dealing with right now who remained in the country? We saw people flee the country at the start of the war and more fled last year when more military conscripts were announced. About 300,000. That having been said. It has remained quite muted and one can’t depend on on the how people feel in surveys among Russian society. What is y People are speaking about Russian who left the count I think the majority of them are and are waiting about the moment when the situation changes, when the regime changes in Russia and when they will be able to return back home just like we did or do, for exam And our colleagues in Turin, it’ wonderful to have an opportunity to work from Israel, in Latvia and in the Netherlands and in Ge But we have our hope.
We have Russia but different Rus from what we have after February And if we are speaking about Russian society in Russia, Russian society is depressed a lot, a lot, a lot of people are against this but they don’t have any chance to speak out because it’s too da Can’t you it back to you? There in Munich. How significant was it at the ca there at the conference to hear President Harris for the first time say that the United States has formally concluded that Russia has committed crimes against humanity? It is really very important, Bia Definitely. And everyone was quoting Kamala Harris and other other representatives of the United States. You know, that delegation is really big congressional delegation, representatives from countries that, you know, the people here in in Munich and especially representatives o were looking forward to hearing not just statements, however, but also the promises about delivering weaponry, the fighting jets and long range missile systems to Ukraine. And nothing about that has been But still, that accountability is one of the main questions here, really. I mean, what I saw is that everyone was talking not only about the reality, but also trying to plan the future and answer the question, how will the world look like? And if we want a normal world after this terrible war, then we need to make Vladimir Putin and others accountable for what they did. And this is the crime against hu This is a crime of aggression. And, you know, all of us, we think that there is going to be a tribunal, something similar to this. And this is one of the main questions here. So to him, that’s postwar planning We have to get the war to end fi And it doesn’t look like Vladimir Putin is willing to get to the negotiating table in earnest. At this point. What will it take to finally get him there? Because the Russian economy has resilient up to this point. His hold over society and his suppression has worked in terms of we don’t see mass protests on th What will it take to get him to say enough’s enough Well, I think we have several directions. The first direction is the situa on the battlefield, on the ground And that’s what Kaiser was telling now about sending weapons to Ukr And Vladimir Putin is not doing well on the on the ground in Ukraine. Also, I think we will see and that’s what experts say we will see the consequences for the Russian because of the sanctions. That’s too early to see those consequences and will happen soon. And the third thing very importa is the fact that even even in th which could not be trusted with its digits, but we see the that the support of this war is becoming a lower and low in R People are not happy with the fact that Russia is isolated now and that they cannot see any fut So I think that the world should work in these three directions. And the first supporting Ukraine of course, then sanctions and then supporting Russia’s who are not supportive of this terrible Could you. Yeah. Qatar, quickly, let me just talk about what TV rain is doing right now, because the Russian propaganda remains firm inside the country. I know you’re trying to change t in broadcast objective journalist It’s very difficult to do that while you’re in exile, while viewers can only find you on YouTube, and that’s with a VPN. You’ve had your own challenges as well with some mistakes that you have made on air and you’ve owned those. That having been said, how are you convinced that there is an audience large enough that wants to watch what you have to offer? Well, it is important to underlie that YouTube is still available without VPN in Russia. It is eventually, you know, undeniable that this ban will be Of course, I mean, we know that they will ban YouTube some day, but still on this stage, we are we can be openly working on YouTube for Russians. And we have 14 million unique viewers monthly only on YouTube, which is a huge thing. And we can do more. We can do twice more. This is a big potential that we And, you know, as long as they g an opportunity, the whole the wh just has an opportunity to walk. We will walk. And we can convince people, we see the messages, we hear the people talking to us, the audience talking to us. We know that they are against this terrible war and they are supporting democracy So we are yeah. We are optimistic. Well, it is important to it is important to break through to those Russian viewers. That is what’s going to put the pressure point on Vladimir P That is for sure. Ekaterina Court Records and you Thank you so much. For joining us and thank you for what you’re do
