Show notes
This week our guest on the podcast is Alena Vershinina, a
journalist and former host of Ekho Moskvy radio who has also previously workedon Nastoyashchee vremya and now is with Radio Svoboda.The topics discussed in the podcast include: Career - from
Lipetsk to Moscow; The difficulties of working as a journalist in Russia; Harassmentby the authorities; Trends in modern journalism in Russia; Journalism in thecapital and in the provinces; The quality of journalism in modern Russia; Journalismand human rights; Journalists who have left the country; The prosecution of journalists;The ‘foreign agent’ label; Arrests, searches, and seizures of equipment;Comparing Soviet and Russian external broadcasting; The future of Russianjournalism.This podcast is in Russian. You can also listen to the
podcast on our website oron SoundCloud, Spotify and iTunes.The music, from Stravinsky’s Elegy for Solo Viola, is
performed for us by Karolina Herrera.SergeiNikitin writes on Facebook:
“What is happening in Russia now seemed impossible to us just a year ago,” saysAlena Vershinina. “And now everyone is weighing the risks regarding theirfamily members. After all, they seize all the technical equipment they can findduring a search, not just what belongs to the journalist. And everyone is now wonderingwhat can happen to your parents or grandparents.” Simon Cosgrove and I spokewith the journalist Alena Vershinina, who we know from Ekho Moskvy, Nastoyashcheevremya, and who now works for Radio Liberty. When I asked her what herprediction for the future would be, Alena said, "We don't even know howwe're going to survive the next eight weeks with the Russian elections comingup. Every Friday we wait to see who else will be declared a foreign agent. Wedon't understand what will happen in three years: we don't even understand whatwill happen by the end of the year!" "Every move by the state authoritiesagainst the journalistic community gets its own answer,” Alena said, during afascinating conversation. I recommend you listen to the recording to find outwhat answers intrepid Russian journalists give.Simon Cosgrove adds: A summary of some of the
week’s events in Russia relevant to human rights can be found on ourwebsite here.