Russian independent news media is even now operating from Riga, Latvia. The exile offers challenges to newsgathering and push independence.
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Russian President Vladimir Putin has sharply intensified his crackdown on the media because launching the complete-out war in Ukraine. Two American journalists are in detention there, facing what supporters say are trumped-up fees. Journalists who criticize the war risked prolonged prison sentences, yet independent Russian journalism is significantly from useless. It merely moved offshore, as NPR’s Philip Reeves discovered in the course of a journey to Latvia in the Baltics.
KIRILL MARTYNOV: I had two work opportunities in Moscow. I was a university teacher, and I was a journalist. And equally of my position have been wrecked.
PHILIP REEVES, BYLINE: Until finally recently, Kirill Martynov was editor-in-chief of Russia’s oldest independent newspaper, Novaya Gazeta. Then, in February final year, Putin introduced all-out war on Ukraine. Martynov’s life was turned upside down.
MARTYNOV: I was fired from universities for the reason that I mentioned this war with my learners. And Novaya Gazeta was shut down by Russian authorities formally far more than a single yr in the past.
REEVES: Martynov says this intended he faced a very simple