I am a Russian investigative reporter with Meduza, an independent news outlet and "foreign agent" according to Russia's authorities. Ask me anything!

Hi folks! To kick things off, here are some of the stories I've written or wrote for Meduza so you get a sense of the stuff I'm usually working on (the same stuff the Russian government doesn't want us writing about): 1. A dive into the underbelly of Russia's loan shark industry 2. This is how Russia's (also incredibly corrupt) funeral industry works. While working on this story, one of our reporters, Ivan Golunov, had drugs planted on him by crooked cops but was released a few days later after a major public outcry. 3. Here's how we unmasked a government-linked doxxer who harassed people attending opposition protests (or even just random folks who happened to be near a cell tower that leaked the customer data) 4. It's not just the Kremlin which owns and operates "troll factories" in Russia. One of the largest I've ever seen belongs to the Moscow city government. Here’s what I found out about it on the eve of an extremely heated local election campaign. 5. The inner workings of Russia's semi-underground market for leaked private data — where it's both sold and sometimes bought by the cops who want to make a quick buck or circumvent bureaucracy. 6. We tracked down the Russian government’s special phone lines and found that many top officials get subordinates and outsiders to deal with answering the calls. We even called one of these numbers live on the air. 7. Alexey Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation was one of the first victims of the infamous "foreign agent law" later used to go after Meduza. In both cases, the official reason for this designation was completely bogus. [Like this random Spanish boxer guy]9https://meduza.io/en/feature/2019/10/18/roberto-fabio-monda-cardenas). 8. This one is one of my personal favorites. I tracked down a mysterious Moscow reporter pumping out hundreds of "bizarre Russia" stories for a bunch of UK tabloids. His output was then repurposed to fit the "look at how Russophobic Western media are" narrative. 10. This one actually gave me PTSD after watching a man shot and killed on repeat for hours. It was a friendly fire incident in a shooting at Russian FSB HQ. 11. A story about Chinese propaganda's Russian broadcasting and its cringey fails. 12. Few people apart from the PR industry oldtimers remember this, but Lord Timothy Bell once attempted to help Alexander Lukashenko "win over the West." It was a complete failure. Belarus is a horrible Russia-dependent dictatorship today. 13. And this is how Russia's government media propped up Lukashenko's rusty propaganda machine during the 2020 protests against his bloody and corrupt rule. This is my report about the collaboration, co-authored with some extremely brave Belarusian colleagues. 14. The "Steele Dossier" turned out to be a massive steaming pile of BS. We tracked down most of the sources mentioned in it and here's what they told us. 15. This is the crown jewel of Meduza's investigative reporting which won us a national award. We confirmed some of the juiciest details in Alexey Navalny's blockbuster story about Putin's secret palace, released after his return to Russia and subsequent arrest, and then added some more. 16. And a follow-up to the Putin megapalace story, a profile of "Putin's favorite Italian architect," both hilarious and sad in a uniquely Russian way. 17. A girl from the hardline Muslim republic of Chechnya was forcibly committed to an unlicensed clinic outside Moscow by her parents to "therapy" her out of a romantic relationship with another woman. She escaped but was then abducted by Chechen security forced from a DV shelter and no one's heard from her ever since. 18. A mysterious ad agency was pushing antivaxx propaganda to the West. We still don't know who's behind this campaign but it was definitely operated out of Moscow. 19. And Russia's flagship foreign propaganda broadcaster RT is definitely promoting anti-vaccine cranks in the West — while preaching a very different message to its domestic audience. 20. And we profiled a pro-government "activist" who advocates "foreign agenting" Russian independent media, like Meduza(spoiler: he's a total slimeball).

Links to my earlier work can be found in my IaMA from 2017. I sometimes write for The New York Times, The Guardian, Foreign Policy magazine and a bunch of other places. I also wrote an academic article about the political economics of Russian media.

I want to say that some of this work is very valuable, and people like you make great contributions to the public's collective knowledge! You deserve to be recognized for your efforts.

Thank you so much! I can't really imagine doing anything else with my life. And support really matters!

Much respect to you and your colleagues. Extremely dangerous work

Thank you!

Great stuff dude!

Cheers!

Is Putin's approval rating actually as high as reported and Russians generally happy with him? I know an NGO reported 60% approval rating and Kremlin based surveys report much higher.

I think the most reliable indicator of Putin's true support among Russia is the level of vaccination in Russia. It's currently at about 36%.

So is a low rate due to his popularity (because his followers don't trust the WHO etc) or does it mean nobody trusts Putin saying they should get vaccinated?

There's a general and very widespread distrust of government, thanks to decades of extreme corruption at every level. Basically, whatever the government tells you to do, you do the opposite. As a result, only those who genuinely trust him are getting the Sputnik vaccine.

As a result, only those who genuinely trust him are getting the Sputnik vaccine.

Which is a real shame, because Sputnik is a great vaccine. Got my two shots back in December 2020, getting a top up soon.

How is Meduza funded? Did funding sources contribute to the “foreign agent” designation?

Prior to our designation, we were a successful for-profit publication. We carved out an entire new niche of the online ad market (sponsored content, basically). But after the designation we lost 90% of our clients. We are now required by law to attach a big ugly legal disclaimer announcing our status to the top of every piece of content we publish — which includes advertisement material. And almost no one, certainly not big corporate advertisers, wants this on their ads. Whether any sources contributed to our designation or not, we'll never know. This designation is not a judicial process, so the Justice Ministry isn't under any obligation to present any evidence.

Can you guys challenge this designation in a Court?

We did, actually. None of the four government agencies involved in making the decision to designate Meduza a "foreign agent" could or bothered to produce any admissible evidence of Meduza's supposed foreign funding. The judge even chided them for it — but the designation remained because ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

We are now crowdfunded. Of course, we had to cut our expenses very significantly, we lost quite a few excellent people, but so far we've managed to stay afloat.

Have you considered the possibility that you are receiving funding from a foreign entity without knowing it?

Now it doesn't matter since we're *already* a foreign agent!

Has the designation as a “foreign agent” had any impact on sources willing to talk to you or is it more of trying to make publishing honest work difficult/impossible?

It is actually the most detrimental impact of this designation, apart from having our entire revenue model wiped out overnight. Yes, I've had both sources refusing to talk to me because Meduza is a foreign agent and contributors bail on me because they're afraid a Meduza byline will harm their chances of employment in the future.

Could you tell more about the absurd hurdles the "foreign agent" label adds: I feel like people outside of Russia can barely imagine it.

Thank you for the work you do!

For one thing, this is what Meduza's (and every other foreign agent's) Twitter feed now looks like. It's a legal disclaimer that we are mandated by law to put on top of every piece of content we publish. Yes, every tweet too. Yes, in bold. It says: THIS MESSAGE (MATERIAL) WAS CREATED AND/OR DISSEMINATED BY A FOREIGN MASS MEDIA OUTLET PERFORMING THE FUNCTIONS OF A FOREIGN AGENT AND (OR) A RUSSIAN LEGAL ENTITY PERFORMING THE FUNCTIONS OF A FOREIGN AGENT. Failure to do so will result in heavy fines and then prosecution.

we are mandated by law to put on top of every piece of content we publish

What would happen if a new publishing organization is created anonymously and ignores the status? Would it just be too unpopular to matter?

What would happen if a new publishing organization is created anonymously and ignores the status? Would it just be too unpopular to matter?

One outlet (Proekt.media) was designated an "undesirable organization" which is the next step from "foreign agent." This status means that any association with them is a criminal liability, even linking to their site. Then they went after every single reporter who has ever worked for Proekt, even those who've long resigned, and declared each of them a "foreign agent" individually. These are the guys who found (supposedly) Putin's third daughter, born out of wedlock. Which is a big f-ing no-no. Putin's family and especially his daughters are absolutely off-limits since he refuses to even acknowledge their existence publicly (when Putin's daughters appear on state TV, their connection to the president is never ever mentioned). So Proekt re-launched as a differently named outlet. They say on their About page that their anonymity is a very painful choice. But they've only published four stories so far, so it's hard to tell how popular they'll be.

Apologies for the silly questions, but how is it legal and/or possible? - aren't Meduza's offices located outside of Russia? How, then, will they have any power over you, your website or servers? What scares people off, exactly? That they don't want to associate themselves with you? In terms of government, Meduza's has always been anti Putin, so what's changed? - how can the post/remove your tweets? Wouldn't Tweeter have something against it? (Unless, of course it just spam that they are attacking you with?)

aren't Meduza's offices located outside of Russia?

Our HQ (top management, IT, finances etc) are indeed located in Riga, Latvia, but most of our reporters and editors, myself included, are in Russia, so we're always a target.

What scares people off, exactly? That they don't want to associate themselves with you?

That's basically it, any association with a designated "foreign agent" (linking to their website, for example, or quoting them) can potentially make yourself liable under this law.

In terms of government, Meduza's has always been anti Putin, so what's changed?

We've never really been pro- or anti-anything, except maybe anti-corruption and that kind of stuff.

And no, it's not the government that puts these disclaimers inside our articles and tweets, we have to do it ourself to avoid prosecution for violating the foreign agent law. Basically, we don't want to get our website blocked in Russia where 90% of our audience is.

What do you guys do to try to keep yourselves safe from unjust persecution or worse?

You really can't keep yourself safe from unjust persecution precisely because it's unjust (and unpredictable), but we've had to evacuate a few colleagues out of Russia because of police harassment. Standing your ground and not yielding to pressure sometimes helps too, especially if there is a major public campaign in your support. In June 2019, one of my colleagues had drugs planted on him by corrupt cops, but after a national outcry he was released and the cops are now behind bars. But unfortunately, it was more of a unique exception.

What measures do you have to take to stay safe? Do you fear for your safety constantly? Do you need to fear for your safety as much as the western media would have us believe?

You can't worry about everything all the time, so I'm personally long past the point of being afraid. But we have families, and having them present at legal drills where we run scenarios of a potential police raid on our homes (which actually happened to a few of my colleagues from other media) with our lawyers doesn't really inspire confidence in them.

Has the foreign agent designation had a significant impact on outreach? In other words have you seen decline in the size of your audience?

On the same note, what do you think do most Russian citizens think about independent media? Are they seen as reliable?

We have not! Despite the deep cuts that we had to endure post designation, our readership hasn't collapsed. We are roughly on the same level as pre-April 2021. And recent polls suggest that Russians don't really care about the "foreign agent" designation. Maybe it's because there are so many "foreign agents" now that it means nothing.

Alright folks, I'll answer some of the remaining open-ended/complex Qs and we're wrapping up for today. Ask away!

I m planning on becoming a reporter too, I m still a student in high school, I wish I could ask you everything but it would be good to know just a few things.

What aspects does a journalist or a news reporter needs in him to become a journalist.

What was the most dangerous part of being a journalist and have you ever faced a life threatening situation?

I wish you a happy and a long career sir, you are an actual hero who expose corrupt systems to the public and open there eyes.

Thank you in advance.

Okay, so:

What aspects does a journalist or a news reporter needs in him to become a journalist.

Above all, I think, curiosity and persistence. Investigative reporting often takes you on long wild goose chases for leads that often end up in nothing. Don't let it deter you. Curiosity means spotting one seemingly insignificant detail which may (or may not) unravel a massive conspiracy. This investigation was born out of one random social media post, for example. So be vigilant for this kind of stuff, learn to spot patterns. Also, always learn new stuff. Read what other people write, learn from them, study laws, regulations, government databases etc.

What was the most dangerous part of being a journalist and have you ever faced a life threatening situation?

That depends. War reporting is of course the most dangerous kind of journalism anywhere, don't go there without significant experience and hostile environment training. In Russia, investigative reporting, especially in certain regions of Russia, is also very dangerous. I don't actually put myself in harm's way as much as some of my much braver colleagues do on a daily basis, but I've had my moments too.

Oh boy! My favorite kind of questions, but it'll take me a while to tackle it. Please stay tuned!

Привет Алексей... спасибо за AMA. I have a few questions! Sorry for the barrage!

1. Are Russian-based advertisers disallowed from hosting ads on Meduza's website as a result of Meduza's registered foreign agent status? Or are advertisers just unwilling to pay for ad space due to the risk of being deemed foreign agents themselves? Confused about that!
2. To what extent do you think the Russian foreign agent statutes and their implementation are a response to FARA, US/EU sanctions against Russia, and RT/Sputnik's designation as foreign agent in the US? How do the Russian laws/and their implementation differ from FARA?
3. What is the general attitude of Russian citizens—say, in Moscow or Peter—toward these designations and toward journalist-foreign agents? Do people care? How does state media cover the statutes and their implementation?

1. US's FARA and Russian "foreign agent" law are similar in that they both have "foreign agent" in their name, but that's about it. A typical Russian "foreign agent" in the US is a K Street lobbyist or a NYC law firm retained by the Russian government or an oligarch for major $$$. In Russia, it's a young woman whose life and career are now ruined because she has to include the "foreign agent" legal disclaimer on top of her every social media food, including Instagram pics of her food, her Tinder profile and job applications — for this. In the US, one has to register themselves with the DoJ. In Russia, you only find out about it when your name appears on the Justice Ministry's website. It usually happens late on Friday nights, we call them "doom Fridays." There's no way to know when and if that happens to you or to prevent it. I could go on, but you get the picture.

What is the general attitude of Russian citizens—say, in Moscow or Peter—toward these designations and toward journalist-foreign agents? Do people care? How does state media cover the statutes and their implementation?

There's a recent poll to answer your question: most people in Russia (65%) have no idea and of those who do, 66% don't care while 19% disapprove of these designations and only 11% approve. So this is where we are.

Привет indeed! Good questions, I'll tackle them one at a time:

Привет indeed! Good questions, I'll tackle them one at a time:

1. On the face of it, Russia's "foreign agent" law is not a punishment — although it's definitely designed to be. Formally, no one is prohibited from either contributing to a "foreign agent" media outlet or advertise with it. But the status carries with it the obligation to put a legal disclaimer announcing our status — in BIG BOLD LETTERS — on top of every piece of content we are publishing, ads included. Obviously, there aren't that many advertisers who want this on top of their ads. Plus, linking to content produced by a "foreign agent" is one of the prerequisites for being "foreign agented" yourself. You see how this can be inconvenient for big corporate advertisers.

The outlet I'm working for, Meduza, was designated a "foreign agent" by the Russian government in April 2021. It's a ridiculous legal straitjacket designed to slowly strangle an independent news outlet out of existence without physically attacking or jailing its editors and reporters

This is understandable due to corruption, but it says that the medium is based in Latvia, so isn't such a designation correct? Or was there something preceding this, such as that the medium was based in Russia before but then had to leave due to pressure?

Good question! Yes, Meduza's HQ is based in Riga, Latvia, as a safety measure to protect us from basic physical harassment such as searches, seizures, bugged offices etc. Meduza was founded in 2014 by exiles from the largest independent news website in Russia, Lenta.ru, which had earlier suffered a hostile takeover by a Kremlin-friendly editor. Lenta.ru's then editor in chief Galina Timchenko, who is today our publisher, was fired by Lenta.ru's oligarch owner after pressure from the Kremlin, so the entire editorial team walked out in solidarity with her. The core of that team later founded Meduza. They made the decision to set up shop somewhere close to Moscow but outside of the Kremlin's jurisdiction. The decision had both pros and cons — one con being that our Latvian registration was literally the one piece of evidence the Russian Foreign Ministry produced during the trial when we attempted to fight that designation. They literally said in court "well your honor, they are based outside of Russia so they *must* be getting some foreign funding". I'm not kidding, that was it. The designation remained in place.

Are you a foreign agent?

I'm not!

In your opinion, how likely is a full scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia?

Not very likely.

To what extent, if any, is the Russian Orthodox Church under Putin's influence? Does he have effective veto power over the Church or do they effectively operate without governmental interference?

Constitutionally, Russia is a secular state but of course its top hierarchy will never criticize the authorities in any form. Lower ranking priests speaking out against injustice or in support of the opposition do so on pain of being defrocked/excommunicated or suffering other heavy penalties, both ecclesiastical and civil, or at least public condemnation on state media.

Do you ever worry about falling out a window? How do you keep yourself safe?

I keep myself safe by keeping an extra pair of eyes on the back of my head, so to speak.

How big are your balls?

Average-sized, thank you.

Hello, besides anything covid related, how has science been affected by the government? Are there any off limits subjects or state promoted beliefs like Lysenkoism?

Generally the Russian government is very pro-science, unless it's historians digging too deeply into uncomfortable subjects like Stalin's purges.

Is Putin enjoying watching America implode? Do you think any of the crazy conspiracy theories concerning vaccine's or voting are still planted by the Russian state? Personally I do. It's sad that we as a society are so easily manipulated. The way it's going we will fall without a shot being fired. I would very much value your opinion. Thanks

I can't get inside of his mind to know what he really think or feels, but he surely does throwing a wrench or two whenever he has an occasion. Regarding vaccine conspiracy theories, that's what Russia Today does, but based on what I know about them, they're not really doing it on Putin's orders — rather just farming for clicks.

Do you worry for your safety? Why do you take such risks? Thank you for your hard work and bravery.

I mostly worry for my family's safety, not my own, and there are far more riskier jobs than mine. And thank you for your kind words!

Hey Alexey! Long-time listener first-time caller here.

Since you wrote pieces for US media and appeared at some shows/podcasts, could you explain why American "experts" on Russia are constantly oversimplifying things or just get a lot of facts wrong?

I've listened to a podcast with you about Trump (the one with Trump's face-melting) and it was painful to listen how many times you have to correct the record when asked about Russia.

Well I guess it's inevitable in an environment where you have to pack a lot of really obscure, complicated, often conflicting data into one neat soundbite, so I'm using every chance I get to introduce some nuance into the Russia discourse.

What will drive Russians to protest the government? What's a tipping point?

Vaccine mandates! Like, really, that's what it took. There are now protests across Russia, people are bum-rushing government offices and "occupying" malls to protest against vaccine passes. It's such a shitshow.

My partner wants to be an investigative journalist/reporter and I want them to be safe.

1. What are some things new journalists should know going in + do’s/don’ts?

2. What’re some things the general public should know about your role? Ways we can help? Etc.

3. What would be some valuable tools and resources to make your job/life/work easier; what are some of the problems that could be addressed by a new service/product/team. It’ll always be a challenging roll but I’m hoping it could be made better.

Okay, so:

What are some things new journalists should know going in + do’s/don’ts?

Learn when it's time to stop chasing a lead and don't twist the truth of what you know to fit a narrative in your head. One way or another, people will find out. More often than not, what seems to be the smoking gun is not it.

What’re some things the general public should know about your role? Ways we can help? Etc.

The hardest part is often to convince people that you're not after an agenda, so show them that you're open-minded. Best way to help is to support independent media that rely on crowdfunding and sharing journalists' work online. We always appreciate that.

What would be some valuable tools and resources to make your job/life/work easier; what are some of the problems that could be addressed by a new service/product/team. It’ll always be a challenging roll but I’m hoping it could be made better.

Most of my problems could be addressed by having a good night's sleep and spending more time with my family — don't think there's an app for that! Take good care of your body and mind, first and foremost. Sorry but I don't have a better answer to this!

My favorite kind of questions, but it'll take me a while to answer! Please stay tuned.

Priviet! Is it true millions of Russians leave Russia every year?

No, I don't think it's true. While there's been a steady exodus in the last few years, it's definitely not in the millions.

How balanced is RT? I mean, I know they're not but can you say something about it?

I'm not the most impartial source as far as RT is concerned, so I'll tell you what I like about them. Their Creative Lab's projects are awesome, and their Ruptly service is indispensable. If they limited themselves to these two desks, I'd be their biggest advocate and would probably have applied for a job at some point. Their English-language coverage is garbage, can't speak for other language versions but I was told that their German website is even more awful.

Do you think it is possible that in the future you may need to consider leaving the country for you or your family's safety?

It is, I'm afraid, quite likely.

Thats a great name, are you related to the NHL player Alexei Kovalev?

No, I'm not :)

What app or software do you use to communicate with others to maintain privacy/secrecy? Thanks

Signal or Telegram secret chats (my government sources seem to prefer it).

Frequent commentary on the low vaccination level and general covid crisis in Russia has been that this is an unanticipated side effect of troll farms' attempts to destabilise western nations, with English-language anti vaccine propaganda, spilling back over into Russia due to the global, interconnected nature of social media.

How true would you say this is and do you think this will impact future Russian misinformation warfare tactics?

That some of Russia's vaccine disinfo does indeed seep back into the domestic online discourse is a fact (established by me lol), but I don't think is the biggest contributing factor to Russia's extremely high vaccine hesitancy rates. It's mostly the general distrust of the government. Also, after my article came out, Russia Today stopped publishing their typical bonkers anti-vaccine/mask/lockdown screeds so I guess that's an improvement.

Thanks for your efforts to uphold investigative journalism! Are you related to the hockey player of the same name? He played in the NHL from 1992-2012.

Haha lol no, I've never even met him. Alexey+Kovalev is like the most popular name-surname combo in the Russian speaking world. Kovalev literally means "son of smith" (kovati means to forge in most Slavic languages) so you see where this is going. There are literally hundreds and possibly thousands of my full namesakes online which makes vanity googling a bit frustrating.

How far do you think Russia on a timescale from where Belarus is now?

I don't know, 3-4 months maybe? We've had our share of political prisoners, torture, assassinations, brutal suppression of independent media and civil society groups etc — but not yet on such a horrifying scale as Lukashenko's regime.

dont you fear death?

Not really, no. What I do fear is that 1) my accounts will get hacked, which is why I'm always using all sorts of online protection (my social media accounts are registered to a virtual phone number, not a Russian SIM which may be cloned, I use randomly generated passwords everywhere, never go online without my VPN on, etc) 2) I myself am declared a "foreign agent" and my whole life is upended, I'll probably have to leave Russia 3) Russian authorities will go after my family members to put pressure on me. But my mum and dad are well aware of what I'm doing and they're not the kind of people what can be easily intimidated.

Do you think the Russian government have had any hand in producing the Steele dossier?

No, I actually happen to know a woman who had a hand in producing the Steele and she's definitely not the Russian government.

Do Russians hate America & American people?

Would American pop culture be so fundamentally pervasive in every aspect of Russian society if that were the case? I don't think so.

Is Alexey Navalny a “Foreign agent” working for the CIA? He has been seen living a good life and there is proof that he receives payments from an unknown source through BITCOIN every month.

What do you think his long term goal is?

Will he be a less corrupt putin or a man that can actually bring changes to Russia.

If he is indeed a foreign agent working with the CIA, I wonder why they had never brought charges of high treason against him when they jailed him. Could it be because there's 0 admissible evidence of it?