New Russian Émigré Media ‘Unique Asset for Global Community,’ JX Foundation Study Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Jan. 4 – Russian media outlets forced into emigration by Putin’s increasing repression since the start of his expanded invasion of Ukraine feature “unique insights” into Russian realities and thus “represent a unique asset for the global community,” according to a new study by the JX Foundation.

            Founded in 2022 by Reporters without Borders and two German groups, the new foundation serves as a clearinghouse for information about émigré publications and in a new 38-page report describes the current state of the new Russian émigré media (jx-fund.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Sustaining_Independence-Current_State_of_Russian_Media_in_Exile_2023.pdf).

            Penelope Winterhager, the foundation’s managing direction, says that “the rising number of media in exile is of historical proportions. Never has there been a single group as large as that formed by independent Russian outlets.” And she says that despite financial difficulties, this segment of the media is flourishing and gaining ever more attention inside Russia and beyond.

            Among the key conclusions the foundation has reached about this new émigré media are the following:

·       It is extremely diverse in terms of the focus and methods its components use to report on developments inside Russia, but far more than in the case of earlier emigrations has successfully used the electronic media to maintain contact with and get reports by people still inside Russia

·       Outlets from Moscow and St. Petersburg form “an outsized role” in this media, but “a fifth” of it comes from regions and republics.

·       Of the 93 outlets surveyed by this study, 34 were launched in 2022-2023.

·       Most are heavily dependent on donors but increasingly they are being supported by subscribers.

·       They reach enormous audiences, estimated at between 6.7 million and 9.6 million inside Russia, six to nine percent of the adult population of that country.

 

Denis Kamalyagin, editor of Pskovskaya Gubernia, which was forced to relocate from Pskov Oblast to Riga in 2022, agrees. He says that émigré publications now are very different from their predecessors in the 1920s because the internet allows them to maintain in close contact with their audience inside Russia (severreal.org/a/vstat-i-idti-kak-rossiyskie-smi-v-izgnanii-perezhili-vtoroy-god-voyny/32752667.html).