To defeat Putin, we must support the brave Russian journalists telling the truth

Independent news websites such as Meduza and Holod say they still reach millions of unique browsers in Russia, thanks to mirror websites, virtual private networks (VPNs) that can dodge the censors, and hard-to-block channels like email and Telegram.

I visited senior editors from both in Riga last week as part of a Guardian Foundation project to compare notes and offer advice on how to fund independent journalism. Meduza’s editor-in-chief, Galina Timchenko, told me it was like a game of cat and mouse: each time she came up with a new way of distributing news in Russia, the authorities shut it down. And yet Meduza still claimed about 2.5 million unique browsers monthly in Russia last year, reports The Guardian.

Holod’s editor, Taisia Bekbulatova, said shoring up independent Russian journalism was a vital part of saving Russia from itself.

“Our goal is to preserve independent journalism for the future of Russia,” Bekbulatova told me. “Despite having to work in exile, we believe in the importance of high-quality journalism and the possibility of destroying a dictatorship. We want to be not just a media, but a true institution of independent journalism.”

For a western world agonising over how to make a difference in the Ukraine war, supporting journalists like this seems an obvious opportunity. In the same way that millions of readers have supported Guardian journalism over the years because they recognise the importance of independent media to the functioning of democracy, the same obtains in Russia.

We can help outfits like Meduza and Holod easily, for the fraction of the cost of a Leopard tank. The hope has to be that flourishing independent Russian news organisations might persuade ever greater numbers to question the Kremlin’s lies. Glasnost has impeccable form in this regard.

Writer: The Guardian’s executive editor for supporters and a former Moscow correspondent