By Catherine A. Fitzpatrick
So this scandal riling all the YouTube Russian talk shows is now in the English-language media here and here.
Dozhd' - TV Rain -- which used to broadcast out of a studio, then an apartment, then went on YouTube and emigrated to Riga like Moscow Times - has been informed by Latvia that it has lost its broadcast license as a "threat to national security" over its broadcasting policies exhibited in various newscasts not only referring to Crimea as "part of Russia," but also discussing how Russian draftees can be helped in their miserable position.
War is hell. Ukrainian women join the armed forces, risk death, and spend countless months at the expense of their health helping those on the front line. They demonstrated in Maidan and got themselves killed for the sake of eliminating (not entirely) Russia's heavy hand. If the wives and mothers of the newly-mobilized (or the long-time conscientious) can't bestir themselves to really demonstrate like it counts, and risk jail and death the way the Ukrainian people have throughout history and now, then I don't see why we have to be overly concerned with providing first-aid kits and blankets to Russian soldiers to help them fight better.
The ICRC can perform that function, that neutral, fine, prejudice-free organization called by the international justice system to do this awful good deed, taught by the world's greatest religions, notably Islam and Judaism -- even if the Red Crescent and the Mogen David were a little late in coming to the ICRC's symbolic arsenal. Oh, the ICRC can't get into some areas because their own people are killed? Well, if they don't want to publicize who is responsible for that, as they publicize these things about Israel/Palestine, then, I guess we'll have to wait for...OSCE. Oh, but Russia defunded the mission there and they were forced to leave. Maybe the ROC, that church-without-a-basement could step up?
"If you want Russia to be better after all this you have to do this," isn't an argument that works on me any more, sorry. I'll dissect that point in my next post, "Is Russian Civil Society Worth Saving?" to retail the answers I've received from various colleagues: "Yes, of course, because..." or "There isn't any Russian civil society" to "But we didn't win the war yet, so we can't have a Marshal Plan."
So the fullest version of the TV Rain saga du jour is here and predictable takes from here here and here. Let me suggest that this affair still awaits its deepest investigative and impartial journalism. And as always with these sorts of scandals, those with a particle "Moscow Bubble" bien-pensant view imagine that anyone who differs is not as smart, not as intellectual, and not as nuanced as they are and is a "neo-con" or and unthinking booster of "the Kyiv regime" etc. So often these controversies are discussed -- especially on Twitter and other social media -- as popularity contests with everyone looking fearfully over their shoulder so as not to be taken of the policy breakfast list.
I had hoped that as we all actually look at the war on the ground -- we all do that, right? -- we would be getting past that sort of snotty Muscovite solipsism even though said thinkers "aren't in Moscow any more." But no.
What will it take to make Russia a viable country, even a democracy, that ceases to be a threat to its neighbours and even itself?
Well, the concept of "itself" will have to change, for one. I think some of us believe, given our long study of Russia and our personal sojourns among its people that "Russia" will have to lose some of its 89 "subjects" just like "the Soviet Union" had to lose everything, including the Russian Federated Soviet Socialist Republic.
And even the Russian opposition, such as it is, will have to change.
Otherwise the West is helping a Russian exiled opposition which could turn out like Lenin's, which may be worse for the country. You may differ on your take on this.
And yeah, I totally get it about this and whatever other "OSINT" and "HUMINT" we're going to dredge up on this matter that will show "both are worse," like they say in Odesa. I will pre-emptively declare any and all examples of perfidy uncovered as "besides the point" in advance.
Because: Russians.
But if you think Dozhd's crime was merely about the misstatement of one journalist, which might be fixed with other's commentary, or the wrong map, which Google is guilty of, too, for which Dozhd was fined, then you haven't been paying attention since, oh, 2014, when Tikhon Dzyadko, despite (because of?) his last name, welcomed Crimea to Russia on Twitter.
Zinovy Zinik called this larger, long-term problem correctly (see below). Yes, there are some of us who remember the context of No Context Russia -- but let's say it's not a tweet that aged well.
Should the governments of countries get to dictate what the ideological platforms should be of emigres who flee persecution on their territory?
Oh, I don't know, maybe countries that have been invaded and occupied for 50+ years by the country from which those emigres fled get to do that, you know? Especially when the issue at hand concerns currently- but temporarily-occupied regions of a neighbouring country, Ukraine.
Should we avoid occasions where we add to the self-pity of very-recent mobikis and their media, much less long-suffering opposition and emigre groups?
Oh, I don't know. Maybe they need to learn like the rest of. Many bars in the US used to have signs on the door: NO IRISH.
Am I surprised that I have parted company on this topic with the thinking of Kevin Rothrock, Alexey Kovalev and others at Meduza who used to relentlessly harass and troll and threaten us at The Interpreter? Or someone like Anton Barbashin who tried to get me fired from my job for my apt and just criticism of his now-forgotten magazine? Before they got religion after Feb. 24, seemingly? No.
Will I be sorry that my views on this matter are different from some of my dearest Russian friends and colleagues? Sure. I'm sure they'll be able to handle differences of opinion and not demand any "honour of uniform", right?
Does an incident of this nature lead to loss of refugee status? Well, then, in keeping with various UN treaties on the treatment of refugees barring nonrefoulement, if Latvia can't comply, the US should step up here as we are the wealthier country with more distance between us and Russia, and more diversity among our population and immigrants, right? The US isn't supplying ANY visas to ANY Russians from Russia, and it may want to re-think that policy and figure out how to deploy it better at other capitals if its thinking can't stretch that far.
I doubt funding TV Rain from our shores will cost any more damage to national security than New York City funding the broadcasting of RTV, where I once worked as a lowly translator and caption editor, right? That franchise was owned by a Polish company, BTW, out of New Jersey, I think, and NYC ended up letting it go, I suppose because it didn't have enough of an audience. There are emigre Russian TV stations in New York with more varied and critical news than RT.
Just one request: put them in Voice of America. Not RFE/RL.
Germany might be the best place for TV Rain.
Update: I didn't have to wait more than five minutes for someone who is very decent and conscientious, Yevgeniya Albats, to step up and explain NO CONTEXT RUSSIA here -- that Tikhon in fact was saying this "ironically" about a Crimea that had seemingly embraced Russian occupation, but was now experiencing what "Russia Mainland" always experienced when a demonstration was broken up by police.
You can't see the YouTube link on the tweet, but if you click on it, yeah, that's what it was about (and its "non-availability" now doesn't necessarily mean anything about TV Rain hiding something; lots of videos Russia doesn't like get removed under pressure from Russia on YouTube, often with fake "copyright violation" abuse reports.)
Let me suggest that ironical tweets can be written differently: "Be careful what you wished for, Crimea." Or "We warned you, Crimea." If we even take "Crimea" as a "whole" of anything except part of Ukrainian territory. How about: "The will of the Crimean people has really not been taken into consideration, especially given the large population of Crimean Tatars."
Instead, with the superb irony of the Moscow-insulated-insider, he said "Welcome to Russia." We're always supposed to understand that nuances and sarcasm is almost as good as fighting a war until you win. But the Ukrainian people show daily that it is not.
I recall this because context I covered the war in Ukraine for 8 years, unlike many people tuning in now. Tikhon could have a) deleted the tweet; b) added clarification then or now. Did he? I may have missed it. If he did, great, but the fact that it could be bandied about now
The Russian opposition has to change. It has to change. It has to change.
Another Update: Here's Tikhon's "apology tour". Instructive to read the responses of not only Ukrainians, but Russians, who are less than impressed. If we're supposed to be chastised for "not fact checking" (I actually remember this context back in the day), it's not persuasive because he only digs himself in deeper. Yes, he's referring ironically to a territory of Ukraine which he perceives as "wanting to join Russia" so he calls it as a single whole, "Crimea" -- although even if the technical majority of Sovietized Russian-speakers on that peninsula might have voted for annexation if they were in a free and fair and OSCE-endorsed referendum -- there's the significant population of Ukrainians, Crimean Tatars, who are the indigenous people of Crimea, and others, who would have voted "no" -- and we'll never know, as there wasn't a free referendum with the free press and independent judiciary you need for this.
Tikhon Viktorich really gets his ass handed to him in the discussion below "explanatory" tweet, and not only from Ukrainians, and that's a good thing, even if some of them are Kremlin trolls.
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