interview
As of: 04/21/2022 9:44 p.m
Shortly after the attack on Ukraine, the independent Russian TV channel Dozhd ceased operations. Editor-in-Chief Tikhon Dsjadko is now broadcasting from Georgia – im ARD interview he describes the conditions under which this is possible.
ARD: Your broadcaster Doschd initially reported very critically about the fighting in Ukraine. But after a week, they voluntarily shut down operations, just before a new law criminalizing so-called fake news about the Russian military went into effect. Was it a difficult decision to quit?
Tikhon Dzyadko: We knew that with the new law we would have only two options: Either we turn into a kind of press office of the Department of Defense or we continue as before and have a good chance of going to prison for up to 15 years. And we understood very quickly that we are more useful in freedom than in prison. That’s why we stopped broadcasting.
ARD: You won’t find news like Doschd sent anywhere else in the country. Where is your audience going, where are people getting their information now?
Djadko: We really – I’m not exaggerating – got hundreds and thousands of requests to somehow continue. We then decided that some of our moderators from here (from exile, editor’s note) start my own youtube channels, me too. We stream once a week, there’s a lot of interest from our audience, but we understand that that’s not enough for people. However, in order to do a full program again, we need time and logistics. We’re organizing that right now. I think we can start broadcasting again in a few months, from wherever.
To person
Tikhon Dzyadko is the editor-in-chief of the independent Russian television channel “Dozhd” (also known as “TV Rain”). In Russia, the channel was classified as a “foreign agent” from August 2021 and blocked since March 2022 for independently reporting on the Kremlin’s war of aggression against Ukraine. Since March, Djsadko has been broadcasting news from Georgia on a YouTube channel.
ARD: You also need information from Russia, how do you want to do that?
Djadko: There are two problems: The first is getting information from Russia. And the second: bringing information back into the country. The digital iron curtain will become even tighter. Undoubtedly it is dangerous, you have to balance the need to have your own information from Russia and not to put people in danger.
Interview with Doschd editor-in-chief Tikhon Dsjadko
tagesschau24 09:00 a.m., April 21, 2022
What surveys can say – and what not
ARD: The polling institute Levada recently said that, despite everything, they see great support for Putin, around 80 percent. How do you explain that?
Djadko: It seems to me that sociology cannot exist in an authoritarian country. And Russia has long been more than just authoritarian. If a stranger walks up to you on the street and asks, “Are you for or against the President?” there’s a good chance they’ll say you’re for it. Because who knows what else will happen to you. I therefore orientate myself on empirical things. They are not representative, but it says a lot that in the first days of the war our channel was viewed 25 million times on YouTube alone, and the absolute majority of views came from Russia.
There is a huge demand for independent information. Many people are afraid to say what they really think. And many are in a state of denial. I see that with my followers on Telegram: People write: “I can’t do it”, “I refuse to believe that Russian soldiers are shooting the residents of Bucha”, “I don’t want to believe that.” There are a lot of these people.
“Of course the propaganda works”
ARD: In Interviews with people in Russia keep telling the story of alleged fascism in Ukraine. They even want to convince you that this is true…
Djadko: Of course the propaganda works, and of course a certain part of the population supports what is happening. These people dream of empire restoration. What that should look like and what price is to be paid for it is unimportant. They support it because they are told about it on TV.
Navalny described it very well. In prison he only has access to state television channels, and he writes that if you see it all the time, it’s very difficult not to believe it. It’s a very simple world view: there are the fascists, here are the liberators. This is easy to believe when you don’t have access to other information. And that is why the Russian leadership is doing everything so that there are no other sources of information.
“A catastrophe and tragedy for Russia too”
ARD: When we talk about brainwashing in this context, it obviously works not only with the older generation, who only get their information from television, but also with the very young. Or?
Djadko: I’m afraid we can’t yet grasp the scale of this catastrophe. Not to mention the catastrophe and tragedy for Ukraine – it’s obvious. But it is also a catastrophe and a tragedy for Russia. We interviewed Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and he said rather sadly: “We, our generation, will not be able to be friends. Our children or even grandchildren may be able to talk to each other again.”
Putin alone responsible?
ARD: There was a big discussion in Germany when Chancellor Scholz said: “This war is Putin’s war” – and not the Russians’ war. Is he right?
Djadko: That’s a very difficult question. I do not know. But I know: This is not my war, nor the war of my family, my friends – and the majority of my viewers. But to say unequivocally that I had nothing to do with it, I can’t do that. Although I think my colleagues and I did everything we could. But to say that everything is done by Putin and his entourage, the Russians are peace-loving and wonderful and nobody wants bloodshed, that wouldn’t be right. To pretend that this is only Putin’s war – no, that’s wrong.
The interview was conducted by Ina Ruck, ARD Studio Moscow