From exile, Russia’s TV Rain tries to counteract the Kremlin storm

In a small studio in Paris, Russian journalist Denis Kataev prepares his evening news show, which he hopes will do its part to counter the Kremlin’s narrative about the invasion of Ukraine.

Kataev works for Russian broadcaster Dozhd (Rain), which for over a decade from its Moscow base was the country’s most prominent independent broadcaster in a scene dominated by voices loyal to President Vladimir Putin.

But Russia’s invasion of Ukraine resulted in the canal being blocked in Russia and forced to shut down operations for more than four months. Despite everything, it has now resumed broadcasting from a headquarters in Latvia, but also from Amsterdam, Tbilisi and Paris, where Kataev is based.

“I’m optimistic,” Kataev said as he prepared to present Dozhd’s flagship evening news show Here and Now from a makeshift studio set up at a Paris journalism school.

Kataev, a prominent figure in Moscow’s journalism scene before he went into exile after the invasion, will need to find a new studio from September when journalism courses resume at the school.

But he insisted that there was an audience for Dozhd’s broadcasts in Russia.

“For me, the war in Ukraine is the end of Russia, the end of our hopes,” he told AFP.

“For me, Russia is finished and it’s also a question of conscience, that’s why I left my country.”

But he added: “We feel this need for information in Russia. We have to keep going. There is an audience in Russia that thinks differently, that is against Putin’s regime, like me, that is against this war.”

“So we have to fight the propaganda.”

Dozhd ended its Russia operations and ceased broadcasting from Russia with an emotional show on March 3, less than two weeks after the war began, hosted by the station’s owner, Natalya Sindeyeva.

With the words “No Pasaran” (You will not pass) and “No to War”, the entire staff of the channel walked away at the end of the program, leaving behind an empty set and closing an extraordinary chapter in the history of Russian media.

The channel began broadcasting in 2010, branding itself an “optimistic channel” to counter state TV’s bombastic performance, and even gained some official support when then-President Dmitry Medvedev, then nodding to reform, announced his 2011 reform studios visited.

But this winter, Dozhd boldly reported on post-election protests that observers said were rigged, and his voice became far less welcome when Putin returned to the presidency in 2012.

In 2021, it was classified as a “foreign agent,” a status that placed it under severe administrative constraints and faced heavy fines and a ban.

The invasion of Ukraine — and laws banning broadcasters from using the word war to describe what the Kremlin is calling a special military operation, or facing up to 15 years in prison — sealed his fate.

Dozhd resumed broadcasting from the Riga studios on July 18, with an evening news program hosted by its editor-in-chief Tikhon Dyzadko, who told viewers that due to the repressive laws, “there is no longer any possibility that Dozhd could be in Russia is working”.

Dozhd now has around 60 journalists working outside Russia and remains defiant, though under no illusions about the challenges of reporting a country in exile.

“Of course it is difficult to work in other countries. You have to find the cameras and studios, but also get visas, which Russian citizens find difficult to get today,” Dzyadko told AFP news agency from Latvia.

But he added: “Millions of Russians want independent information. They are willing to pay and will continue to support us.”

He said that Dozdh has around 50,000 Russian paying subscribers. The channel can be watched live on YouTube for a monthly subscription starting at €2 a month and hopes its main website will be back soon for subscribers with a VPN to open from Russia.

Now with an EU broadcasting license, it also enjoys the support of other media, with Latvian, Georgian and Dutch television allowing use of their studios, allowing Dozhd to continue the slick presentation that marked his Moscow years.

Headquartered in Riga, Dozhd’s presence makes the Latvian capital even more of a hub for exiled opposition media. The city already hosts the well-known news website Meduza.

The channel, which was once offered via cable, can only be seen online. But even that cannot protect it from reprisals from the Kremlin. “They can block YouTube, they can block the internet. But we can’t, shouldn’t think about it. But above all we have to work,” said Dyzadko.