The last critical journalists under Putin

Berlin On the night of March 2, a dozen journalists crowded Vasily Polonsky’s Moscow apartment. They all work at Dozhd, which was the last independent television station in Russia at the time. It is an involuntary meeting at a makeshift shelter.

An hour earlier they had to flee their editorial office. The broadcaster’s security service had received a tip that the police would soon be conducting a “mask show” there, as special forces operations in Russia are called.

Three hours earlier, the Russian authorities blocked Dozhd and the radio station Ekho Moskwy. According to the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office, both media “deliberately disseminated false information about the Russian army”. They reported on their country’s war in Ukraine.

Most flee, he stays