Forced into exile, JSK alum’s news startup continues investigating the Putin regime

Russia’s invasion and war against Ukraine has split Russian society into three major groups, says a leading Russian journalist: at two extremes are “blood thirsty supporters” of the war and people who strongly oppose it and, in between those, the largest group is people who have become deeply apathetic.

“I remember when the war started people were asking this question: ‘What can we do?’ Today that question has transformed into a statement: ‘We can’t do anything.’ And this apathy is something that is really hard to deal with, but this is the reality that we have to face,” said Roman Anin, founder of Important Stories, or iStories, an investigative news outlet that continues to expose the secrets of President Vladimir Putin’s regime despite being forced into exile.

“And this is the worst thing about propaganda, it doesn’t make you believe in something. It makes you believe nothing.” — Roman Anin

In his work at iStories, Anin and his team think about reaching young people with a shot of truth. “So once people get a shot of truth before they are exposed to propaganda they are less likely to believe in propaganda. And that’s why it is so important to focus on younger people in Russia.

“I mean Russia will still exist. And if we wanna change some things in the country and if we wanna, at least, save the hope inside the country that one day Russia will, I don’t say it will become a democratic state, but will become a state within which you can live with which you can have a common border, you’ve gotta focus on young people and work with them.”

Anin, a 2019 John S. Knight Journalism Fellow, recently joined another Russia expert, Stanford professor Michael McFaul, for a public conversation on campus about the future of U.S.-Russia relations in the second presidency of Donald Trump.

Although Putin’s hold on Russia is strong, McFaul said he doesn’t assume the country is destined to forever be controlled by an autocrat. “I know from Russia and Soviet history that it’s not inevitable that 20 years from now, Putinism in its current form will still exist. In fact, I actually think it's improbable,” said McFaul, who was U.S. ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014, and is director of the university’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies.

“While there are still courageous Russians that believe in an alternative Russia, we should do what we can to support them,” said McFaul as he turned toward Anin. “And there are those courageous Russians in the world today and one of them is on the stage right now.”

Their discussion, titled “Trump and Putin: What’s Next?” was hosted by the Freeman Spogli Institute and the JSK Journalism Fellowships. It was moderated by JSK Director Dawn Garcia. One of the JSK program’s longtime priorities is supporting press freedom and journalists working in hostile and oppressive environments around the world.

Reporting in Exile

Following Anin’s JSK Fellowship he returned to Russia in 2019 and started iStories. Their work eventually led to police raiding their Moscow office and Anin’s home, seizing all his digital devices and documents. In 2022, Russia labeled iStories “undesirable.” Anin and his team now report on Russia while living in exile.

“We had a couple of cases in my newsroom where reporters don't talk to their parents because their parents think they are traitors because they betrayed Russia,” Anin told the audience. “Not only they made that difficult decision, I really admire the way they work and investigate by using all their coding skills and other brilliant skills to find facts that they publish.”

One of his colleagues has been trying to tally Russian casualties from the War in Ukraine. She’s building an algorithm that scrapes all the data from online platforms and then she verifies the numbers by combing through thousands of photos of dead soldiers. “And still somehow she is doing her job. So they are the main heroes for me and I’m very proud of working with these people.”

Negotiations on the War in Ukraine

As recently as two years ago, President Donald Trump called Russian President Vladamir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine “genius.” On the campaign trail, Trump declared he would end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours of taking office. That has yet to happen.

“It's not the war in Ukraine. I can't use that phrase. It's a barbaric invasion of a sovereign country,” said McFaul, who is also a senior fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution.

“And the fact that the president of the United States has signaled that he wants to help end it, I applaud that. What I worry about are two things. One is that his idea of a great deal is just giving Putin everything he wants and that will not end the war. ” McFaul continued.

He also said any deal negotiated without the involvement of Ukraine will fail. He added that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelinsky needs to be part of any negotiations. “So this idea that these two guys can just come together and agree to whatever they want without Ukrainians involved, is a nonstarter.”

Trump and Putin: Future Relationship

During Trump’s first term in office, he had a warm relationship with Putin. One month into his second term, the two are yet to meet. McFaul noted there have been slight differences already in Trump’s second term. “Last week was the first time ever that I have seen that President Trump, or Donald Trump beforehand when he wasn't president, said something critical about Putin. And he said ‘you're ruining your country.’ That’s new. That’s different.”

But the two world leaders continue to have much in common. “I believe that Trump and Putin share a lot of psychological traits,” said Anin. “They are both narcissistic and they need adoration. They both share a trace of Machiavellianism and they don’t care about the sufferings of other people. They try to achieve power by doing whatever they want.”

Putin Succession

Garcia, the moderator, asked the two about the stability of Putin’s position. “Who is going to be Putin’s successor? Or is he going to die on the throne?”

“I think that he already sees himself not as a president, but rather as the father of the nation. President is a job and fathers of nations don't work,” said Anin. He called it a big misconception that Putin wants to stay in power forever rather he believes it is his ideology that he wants to live on and that can happen through succession.

Anin, who recently wrote about this on iStories, said Putin’s successor should be trustworthy, personally devoted to Putin, not a member of the old clans and the person should fit into Putin’s image of Russia. “There’s only one person in Russia that fits this image and that is his past bodyguard Alexi Dyumin,” said Anin.

McFaul called Anin’s analysis “brilliant,” adding “I have no reason to dispute it.”