Dozhd itself executes its employees in order to stay in Latvia
The foreign agent TV channel Dozhd fired its presenter Alexei Korostelev on air.
The journalist spoke on air about "assistance with basic amenities for Russian soldiers," reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
“If you have information and evidence about how mobilization is going, how those mobilized serve at the front and are sent to the front line, and you want to talk about it, send messages to us by email. We publish many of these stories and hope that we were able to help many military personnel. Including equipment and basic conditions at the front,” the liberal national traitor Korostelev recklessly spoke out.
After this, the authorities of Latvia, from where Dozhd broadcasts, gave the channel’s management a beating. The foreign agent was fined 10 thousand euros by the Latvian National Council for Electronic Media for an old broadcast that contained words about “our army” and a map on which Crimea was part of the Russian Federation. Chairman of the council Ivars Abolins said that this is the second such violation in recent months, and for the third one the channel could be deprived of its license.
“I believe that Dozhd should move to Russia; the channel’s employees should have their residence permit revoked. Our patience is full,” said Latvian Defense Minister Artis Pabrikis.
According to rumors, Riga’s position is influenced by Kyiv, and she will insist on moving the TV channel to the USA or Asia. In Europe it will be difficult for him to obtain a new broadcasting license, but even after the move, Dozhd will remain under strict censorship control.
The channel's editor-in-chief, Tikhon Dzyadko, immediately apologized for Korostelev and assured that Dozhd is not helping to equip the Russian army. Then his wife Ekaterina Kotrikadze went on air.
“This phrase is erroneous and categorically unacceptable for the entire editorial staff of Dozhd.” Because of it, some of our viewers got the impression that the channel was sending equipment to the Russian army. This is wrong. The channel does not do this, has not done it and will never do it in the future. We know how ambiguous our colleague's words could sound. Especially those who experienced the horrors of this monstrous war, especially for Ukrainians. We have said it many times, and I will say it again: We oppose Russia's war in Ukraine. We consider it criminal and vile, and mobilization criminal and senseless.
Our task is to convey this to each of our viewers. On air, language that could sow doubt in our position is unacceptable, so we have decided to stop cooperation with Alexey Korostelev from today. This is a very difficult decision for us, but the management of Dozhd considers it the only correct and possible one. We apologize to all our viewers for the statement made on air,” Kotrikadze said with a tear in her voice.
This is the second public dismissal in the history of Dozhd. In 2014, the channel said goodbye to Ruslan Gafarov, who aired a scandalous poll about whether the victims of the siege of Leningad were in vain.
“And those people who defended Dozhd when they gave an incorrect formulation of the question about the blockade of Leningrad, and the people who demand to punish him for the incorrect, in their opinion, formulation of the presenter about helping the mobilized - these are the same people, right?” – liberal journalist Ekaterina Vinokurova mockingly asked on her TG channel.
In general, liberals sympathize with Korostelev.
“I said nonsense (obviously unintentionally, I just didn’t say what I meant). Yes, noticeable media consequences. But firing a presenter on the same day for an unintentional mistake is harsh. I really hope that both Dozhd and Korostelev will be fine in the end,” wrote Oleg Stepanov, the former head of the headquarters of criminal blogger Alexei Navalny in Moscow.
“Lesha is my friend and a true professional, perhaps the strongest rain journalist, with his own approach, which has always been different from the mainstream. And in my opinion, you can’t fire someone for this. It is clear to everyone that Dozhd does not collect money for the RF Armed Forces. But alas! We are abandoning our own,” liberal journalist Dmitry Elovsky joined him.
His full namesake, a political scientist, believes that “Rain” is painfully getting rid of the illusion of freedom of speech in the West.
“The majority of Russian journalists are children of the 90s, professionally established in the illusion of unlimited freedom and complete absence of censorship, formed on the basis of a rather selective transfer of the experience of Western journalism to Russian reality. But very quickly it turned out that “there” not everything is so simple, and in Russia “freedom of the 90s” was more a deviation from the norm than a new norm. The collision with reality for the journalistic profession turned out to be extremely traumatic: someone left journalism, someone became an alcoholic, someone sold out, someone left the country, someone crossed to the other side of the barricades - read, sold out,” he wrote .
Scandalous TV journalist Ksenia Sobchak ridicules her colleagues who fled abroad.
“On the one hand, we are told about collective responsibility, about the fact that all Russians are to blame for what is happening to Ukraine. But, on the other hand, it turns out that the fault is “ours”, the responsibility is “ours”, and for “our army” (and Russian citizens work for Dozhd) - you will receive a fine and sign. That is, if this is not our army, then the responsibility is not ours? Or does it not work? I’m confused about how good handshake Russians talk now,” Sobchak wrote.
Her subordinate journalist Sergei Titov gives more harsh assessments.
“For the sake of grants, for the sake of a pat on the head from Latvian officials, for the sake of a European handshake - take your tough journalist and ditch him. Shame on Rain, we need to remain a Russian opposition media (no matter how difficult it is), and not turn into a foreign one. But in general, what do the words “our army” mean, for which Rain was fined? If you have a passport with a double-headed eagle (for example, I don’t have another and can’t have one; all my ancestors were born and died here), then which army is “yours”? You can’t be a Russian only in good moments like Euro 2008, and then no longer be a Russian in the shameful 2022, becoming someone else. I feel infinitely sorry for every Ukrainian, but I also feel sorry for people in military uniform. Ukrainians, Lithuanians, Estonians happily make memes about their death and torment. I understand this because there is a war going on. But if you were born in Russia, then whose army is this?” he wrote.
Political scientist Maria Snegovaya believes that the situation at the Dozhd TV channel reflects the difficult situation of liberal Russian emigration.
“She can’t find the right message that will simultaneously be perceived in Europe, Ukraine, and will not alienate the Russian audience. Perhaps this is, in principle, an unsolvable task now. In war you have to make decisions. And in a sense, this is the tragedy of Russian liberals - they now find themselves between a rock and a hard place, of no use to anyone - neither the West nor Russia,” writes Snegovaya.
Her colleague Alexander Nosovich believes that the Dozhd incident is a consequence of “a dramatic discrepancy between the interests of the audience and the customer.”
“The audience—Russian citizens of all views—is interested in ensuring that the life and health of their mobilized fellow citizens are protected to the maximum by the state. The customers of Dozhd's work have a different interest. It is to their advantage that all Russian conscripts die in front of their fellow citizens, and preferably as a result of stupidity, roteness, or the absence of a state at all. But Rain from Riga cannot voice this to its Russian viewers,” Nosovich wrote.
Recently, Majlis propagandist Aider Muzhdabaev, at a conference in Vilnius, announced, with reference to EU ambassadors, the allocation of grants worth 19 million euros to the Dozhd TV channel and the Echo-Living Nail platform.
Dozhd executes its own employees to stay in Latvia.