Lenta.ru, a pro-Russian news website, published about a dozen articles criticising the policy of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine in the afternoon of 9 May, Mediazona independent news outlet reports.
The texts have now been deleted, they can be accessed through the Internet Archive. The articles were published with the following headlines: “Russia unable to beat Ukraine despite record army spending,” “Russian reporters banned from talking about the negative side of things,” “Russia decimates Mariupol,” and “Ukraine disrupts Putin’s plans.”
All the articles had the following disclaimer: “This article has not been approved by our bosses, and the presidential administration will give them hell for its publication. In other words: SCREENSHOT THIS FAST, before they delete it.” Head of the news outlet’s economy and environment department Yegor Polyakov, as well as the department’s editor Aleksandra Miroshnikova took responsibility for these articles. A Mediazona source confirmed that employees of these departments published anti-war materials by replacing the texts that had already been up on the website.
Mediazona also published a statement by the reporters who published the anti-war messages. “After the mass blocking, the country practically does not have any media outlets that can be accessed without VPN or without doomscrolling on Telegram. We have a huge audience, and I had a part in this, so Sasha and I have decided that this performance is the only right choice to make,” Polyakov said.
He added that the Lenta.ru team had already “had a talk” with him. It is likely that Miroshnikova and he have been fired, Polyakov added.
