We are looking for a job, lawyers and possibly political asylum, the journalists responsible for the articles write. They have now left Russia.
The Russian Internet newspaper Lenta.ru on the night before Monday, May 9 – the so-called “Victory Day” in Russia – published 20 highly critical articles about the war and the country’s President Vladimir Putin.
On Monday morning, the articles were removed, but they are still available in the online archive Wayback Machine Which downloads and stores large web pages multiple times a day.
All articles begin with a message:
This material was not agreed upon with the administration, and for publication, the presidential administration would distribute the stars to the newspaper (ironically, the newspaper would most likely end up in trouble, editor’s note), in other words: TAKE A SCREEN DUMP IMMEDIATELY, BEFORE it was removed.
Lenta.ru It is one of the largest online newspapers in Russia with 21 million monthly users. Sberbank, which has close relations with the Kremlin, owns the newspaper.
Here are some of the headlines printed in Monday night’s online newspaper:
“Putin has unleashed one of the bloodiest wars of the 21st century”
“War makes it easier to cover up failures in the economy. Putin must go. Unleash a senseless war and push Russia into the abyss »
“The Russian authorities prevented journalists from covering the negatives”
“Russia completely destroyed Mariupol”
Russia threatens to destroy the whole world.
Vladimir Putin lied about Russia’s plans in Ukraine
“Zelensky turned out to be cooler than Putin”
“Vladimir Putin has become a pathetic and paranoid dictator”
Russia leaves the bodies of its soldiers in Ukraine
The Ministry of Defense lied to the relatives of those killed on the cruiser “Moscow.”
Putin’s closest aides wanted to set Russia back 100 years.
to attack Putin
The articles describe, among other things, how journalists were not allowed to use words such as “separation,” “war,” and “reduction in GDP.” Instead, they were asked to use ‘liberation from work’, ‘special process’ and ‘passive growth’.
The authors of the article wrote: “During his twenty years in power, Vladimir Putin destroyed all the democratic institutions that Russian citizens had worked so hard to build since the beginning of modern Russia.”
They also published figures from the Ukrainian authorities about the death toll of Russian soldiers – much higher than the official Russian figure.
The authors of the article claim that the war costs Russia $900 million every day.
The cases were published on the night of May 9, Victory Day in Russia. Here is what Putin said in his speech later that day:
– Not hacking
One of the issues was signed by two employees of Lenta, Igor Polyakov and Alexandra Miroshnikova.
– We are looking for a job, lawyers, and perhaps political asylum, to write at the end of the case.
They also thank a number of celebrities who have openly criticized the Kremlin, the war and Putin, such as blogger Yuri Dodd, opposition leader Alexei Navalny, comedian Maxim Galkin, author Boris Akunin, oligarch Oleg Tinkov, Nobel laureate Dmitry Muratov and TV dossier Alexander Nevzorov, millions of Russians who have remained human beings.
Igor Polyakov confirms to the Russian newspaper medusa They are behind the articles.
– This is not piracy. It’s a conscious decision by Sasja and I, which was made some time ago, but could not have been implemented quickly. For now, I don’t want to share the reason for this, he says.
Medusa also quoted another source in an online newspaper, who confirmed that it was not about piracy. The same source claims that Polyakov and Mirochenkova edited already published cases.
Polyakov states that he and Mirochenkova are not in Russia and that they are banned from running Lenta.ru.
Neither Lenta nor the Kremlin commented on the articles.
“Organizer. Social media geek. General communicator. Bacon scholar. Proud pop culture trailblazer.”