In the Kremlin, “It’s all against everyone … that’s why they’re all afraid of being exposed by journalists.”
This is what Roman Badanin, editor of Proekt, a Russian investigative outfit, tells Fox News. He notes that, despite the light being shed on corruption at the highest levels in Russia, the situation has apparently not changed.
The alleged perpetrators do not go to jail and do not even eat a humble pie, nor do they convince skeptics that they are clean. But Badanin, his colleagues and a few other agile armies of intrepid and deep-seated independent journalists plan to keep tearing down the fortress.
Opposition leader Alexey Navalny’s cleverly crafted videos on corruption have inspired some of these new generation of journalists and created healthy competition for others. Their job was not easy.
“I’m nervous about my family’s physical and digital security,” Badanin said. He added that his website had been hacked and that he had been followed. “We are preparing an article about some of the Kremlin officials and we know it. [Russian President Vladimir Putin] is extremely nervous. ‘
After decades of communist rule, there is no real legacy of investigative reporting in Russia. There was a wild, and sometimes reckless, period of press freedom in Russia in the ’90s, just after the Soviet Union dissolved. Russian journalists have found out for themselves. Oddly enough, Badanin says, it feels a bit like being back in the USSR.
“As far as the organizational structure and the judicial structure are concerned, I call it the new ‘samizdat’,” says Badanin, referring to the days of underground (self) publishing that were common in Soviet times. There was no large, public or private channels or newspapers that did buccaneering, controversial reporting. Badanin has 12 staff members. “We are niche media. In terms of funding, Russian media legislation is unfortunately more than draconian. That is why we need to hide information about the sources of our funding. “
Recently, it has helped to sign up for crowdfunding. Proekt strives to be relevant and exclusive.
The use of ‘probiv’ in Russian is the purchase of all kinds of personal data on the web, and it is said that it helped the Bellingcat investigation unit to identify Navalny’s suspected poisoners in August 2020.
“This is one of the options created because of the total corruption in Russia and the situation where Russian authorities do not cooperate with journalists in cases of great social importance,” Badanin said. “I do not think the so-called ‘probiv’ is an important part of this Russian investigative journalistic revival. The most important thing is that we have to investigate many things!”
Proan of Badanin made quite a splash when it told a story of a suspected lover of Putin who went from cleaner to millionaire.
“Our estimate of her wealth is about $ 115 million in assets and interests in companies and stocks,” he said. And in what Badanin calls an ‘aha moment,’ he said, ‘we started looking at who exactly those businesses gave her. We understand that these are businesses created by Putin’s friends, given only to her. ‘
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Badanin went through social media accounts and discovered that the woman had a daughter who had a striking resemblance to Putin and quickly gained nearly 100,000 followers on Instagram. She was reportedly delighted that her stock went up after the Proekt article that ‘surpassed’ her.
“Suddenly she’s a public figure. She regularly takes part in clubhouse sessions. After our article, she was often asked if she was Putin’s daughter and she never said no. She never said yes, but never said not.”
Badanin said his interest in Putin’s personal life was not derived from a desire to gossip readers, but rather as a way of searching for Putin’s assets. He said he believes they are abundant and widely distributed among friends and family.
He reported extensively on Yevgeny Prigozhin, who is often referred to as ‘Putin’s chef’ because of his significant catering contracts with the Kremlin. According to the owner of troll farms and a mercenary unit deployed to fight on behalf of Russia in eastern Ukraine and Syria, to name a few places, he stands in America accused of alleged involvement in the interference in the presidential election in 2016.
When asked about his most popular topic recently, Badanin identified the FSB, the successor to the KGB. He said the agency was not only for him these days, but also for most investigative independent journalists.
“Because of the role in the Navalny poisoning, because of the role in the current political situation in Russia, because the FSB is the most influential group in the ‘siloviki’,” referring to politicians coming from the security of military services.
Badanin said the FSB was embroiled in a struggle with the more “liberal” parts – and he said “liberal” while pointing to quotes – of the Russian establishment. He added that he saw this struggle symbolized by a proposal to return the statue of Felix Dzerzhinsky, the founder of the Soviet secret police, to the square in front of the FSB headquarters. It was demolished from Lubyanka as the Soviet Union unraveled.
Muscovites are invited to vote in a referendum this week on whether they want to bring Dzerzhinsky back. The spiritual father of the KGB, a man most associated with ‘Red Terror’, has spent the years in a park with old statues in the capital.
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There is currently a lot of discussion about this in Russia.
“This is a very dangerous sign,” Badanin said. “It’s scary.”