Ekaterina Glikman worked as a journalist in Russia until 2019 – under difficult conditions, as she says. During this time she also lost colleagues.Image: bild / Ekaterina Glikman
International
Six portraits hang on the wall in the conference room of the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta.
Six Faces. Six lives wiped out by the Kremlin.
“My colleagues died because they did their job,” journalist Ekaterina Glikman told Watson. In a low voice, she adds: “It’s traumatizing.” You never get used to something like that.
For 20 years, Glikman worked for Novaya Gazeta – Russia’s most important independent newspaper. Its editor-in-chief, Dmitry Muratov, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his services to freedom of expression. In 2019, the Russian journalist moved to Switzerland because of love, from where she worked as a correspondent.
Then he came war in Ukraine.
The pressure on the media Russia increased – so much that the Kremlin-critical “Novaya Gazeta” had to cease operations in March 2022.
Dmitri Muratov, editor-in-chief of “Novaya Gazeta” shows the last print of his newspaper from March 28, 2022.Image: dpa / Salvatore Di Nolfi
“The situation for us journalists has never been good in the country, but in the spring of 2022 it got even worse,” says the native Russian. The Putin regime is waging a veritable war on the media. One wrong word and you’ll go to jail. This probably doesn’t only apply to journalists. Glikman knows people behind bars for comments on social platforms.
“Many of my colleagues in Russia write under a pseudonym to protect themselves,” says the journalist. It is incredibly difficult to get hold of sources, experts or voices on the streets. She says:
“If someone talks to you, then only anonymously. Either you write articles without voices or with anonymous sources. But what kind of journalism is that in the long run?”
Those who could have fled Russia, she adds. The journalists stayed in touch abroad and founded the “Novaya Gazeta Europe”. “The team is very young because it’s more difficult for the older colleagues to leave the country overnight,” explains Glikman.
The Latvian and Russian editions of “Novaya Gazeta Europa”.Image: dpa / Alexander Welscher
Under great pressure, journalists in Russia continue to try their work to pursue. They use new ways via YouTube channels or other digital platforms. But about the war in the Ukraine writing is a big taboo subject – life-threateningas Glikman says.
Gag for Russian journalists: They are not allowed to freely report on the war in Ukraine.Image: AP / Roman Chop
“Anyone who writes about the truth may end up in jail or, in the worst case, underground.” The words often leave her mouth hesitantly. As if the Russian were thinking carefully about how to formulate her sentences. Is it because she doesn’t speak in her mother tongue but in English? Or is it a deep-seated protective mechanism of a woman who worked as a journalist under Putin for years?
“I was drunk on freedom.”
“A lot of people just can’t imagine that feeling,” she says. Her Swiss husband is a “normal journalist”, as she says. Whenever she reports on the situation of her colleagues in Russia, his face darkens. “That’s how I realize: oh, that’s not normal,” says Glikman. She laughs and sounds sad.
Ekaterina Glikman is still getting used to the freedoms that she can now enjoy in Switzerland. Image: Ekaterina Glikman
Demonstrating on the open street – unimaginable in Russia
It’s crazy what a person can get used to, she says. The journalist remembers a formative moment in her life: the first time at a demonstration in the Switzerland. “I stood in the middle of the street – free – and could scream whatever I wanted”, she says in a powerful voice, as if she were standing there with a poster in her hands. It felt like a dream. “I was drunk with freedom,” says the Russian.
“The majority supports authorities.”
This kind of freedom is unimaginable in Russia. According to Glikman, it is human to be able to say what you think. But Russian President Vladimir Putin is apparently starting exactly where it begins: with the thoughts.
Putin poison them People with his propaganda.
Putin’s propaganda apparatus manipulates the Russian people
“So many people have been manipulated for more than 20 years. It’s happening slowly—a little bit more and more every day,” says Glikman. It is a gigantic experiment from which no nation is immune.
The Russian people are exposed to Vladimir Putin’s propaganda. Image: IMAGO/SNA / Mikhail Klimentyev
When asked if their opinion after a large part of the Russian population genuinely supports the war in Ukraine, she replies: “The majority supports authorities.” We may never know what really goes on in people’s minds. Many stick to the motto: keep quiet, agree and don’t ask any questions.
Don’t be rebellious, conform and keep your mouth shut – many Russians live by this motto.Image: AP / Alexander Zemlianichenko
According to Glikman, this is a result of propaganda, fear and the inability to get involved politically. The Russian Company remains in a passive state. “If you’re quiet and sit things out, you’re on the safe side,” says the Russian. And security is a human need.
Another factor is the big one Poverty in Russia.
Poverty in Russia plays into Putin’s hands
According to Glikman, the majority of Russians live in extreme poverty. There wasn’t much time left to deal with world events. “They work, eat, sleep – the state television is on at the same time and poisons their heads,” says the journalist.
For Putin it is easy game, this men for money out of poverty to the front to trick into. They are so desperate and have nothing to lose anyway.
A Russian man says goodbye to his family before being sent to the front. Image: AP
From conversations with Russian soldiers, Glikman knows that many were surprised that a “real war” was raging in Ukraine. “They weren’t prepared for reality,” she says. As well as? According to Glikman, the Russian population does not get to see the pictures of dead Russian soldiers, some of whom are sent to the front with missing equipment.
Or about the massacres like in Bucha.
Volunteers load the bodies of the civilians killed in Bucha onto a truck.Image: AP / Rodrigo Abd
“Many Russians don’t know the truth,” she says. On the other hand, there are still Russian citizens who, for the truth, life take risk. This gives Glikman hope.
“They continue to fight underground or through hidden channels in Russia,” says the journalist. Putin may have destroyed everything, but the last spark that people are doing something about these terrible times in Russia is far from extinguished.
She emphasizes in an iron voice that she lost all of her six colleagues during the Putin regime. Because of the six portraits on the wall of the conference room of “Novaya Gazeta” they were always with us, says Glikman. When asked if the photos are hanging there as a warning sign, she replies briskly: “On the contrary, her death didn’t stop any of us.”
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