Editors smuggle criticism of Putin into a medium close to the Kremlin

Criticism of Putin in a medium close to the Kremlin – that doesn’t really exist in Russia. On “Victory Day” of all days, around 20 such texts could be read on Lenta.ru.

Ironically, on the important Russian holiday “Victory Day,” a medium that is actually loyal to the Kremlin briefly published critical articles about the president Wladimir Putin appeared – and was deleted a little later. Two editors of the online platform Lenta.ru later claimed responsibility for the protest.

Now he is probably rid of his job at Lenta, said the previous head of the economics department, Yegor Polyakov, to the critical medium Mediazona. One of the short-lived articles was entitled: “Putin must go. He has started a senseless war and is leading Russia into the abyss.”

A total of around 20 such texts were briefly published on Lenta.ru, they can now only be viewed in the web archive. All contributions began with the preliminary remark that the material was not coordinated with the management of the medium. For their protest, Polyakov and his colleague Alexandra Miroshnikova apparently exchanged the title and text of existing articles on the site.