Recapturing our audience in Russia
Just three and a half years ago, the very notion of trying to build an audience numbering in the millions would have seemed overly ambitious to me. At the time, the Russian authorities made it abundantly clear to us at Proekt — where I served as Deputy Editor-in-Chief — that our work in the country was no longer welcome. In the summer of 2021, police raided our apartments, and shortly afterward, the Ministry of Justice labeled nearly all of our journalists as “foreign agents,” while branding our media outlet as an “undesirable organization” — the first among Russian media to receive such a designation. These events, combined with our new “titles,” practically guaranteed imminent imprisonment, forcing us to leave the country in haste.
Back then, were we setting ambitious goals? Certainly not. Our aim was far simpler: to continue working, no matter the cost.
Even that modest objective felt like an uphill battle. Here are just a few of the major challenges we faced and continue to face today.
The challenges of exile
- Accessing Information Became More Difficult
With our new status as effectively banned journalists in Russia, our sources became wary of speaking to us, making it incredibly difficult to gather information. We can no longer meet with them over coffee or even expect a reply to an official request from government agencies.
- Reaching Our Audience Became a Herculean Task
The Proekt website is blocked in Russia, and social media platforms controlled by the Russian government regularly delete our accounts.
- Financial Strain
Running a newsroom abroad is significantly more expensive, and we lost the ability to receive donations from our audience in Russia, as doing so has become punishable by law.
- Audience Apathy Toward Anti-Corruption Investigations
Many Russians simply don’t want to READ ANTI-CORRUPTION investigations. I emphasize “read” and “anti-corruption” here for specific reasons. First, audiences worldwide, not just in Russia, are less inclined to read long-form articles these days. Second, for many Russians, it is self-evident that the government is corrupt, and it doesn’t particularly bother them. After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, many people lost interest not only in anti-corruption investigations but in current news altogether. The fear and sense of helplessness in the face of government actions have transformed into widespread apathy.
Overcoming the odds
In short, there was little reason to make grand plans in recent years. However, mere survival abroad wasn’t enough for us — we wanted to reach a larger audience inside Russia. So, we began experimenting with different formats, one of which surprisingly took off. We discovered that a significant audience is interested in watching long-form documentary films based on historical investigations.
The term “historical investigation” is somewhat misleading here. What we are really investigating are events from the last 24 years — essentially the entire Putin era. We began creating documentaries for YouTube based on our findings. One of our first experiments this summer exceeded all expectations — a film about Ramzan Kadyrov, the bloodthirsty ally of Putin and the head of Chechnya (a region in the Russian Caucasus), garnered 16 million views. Overall, our YouTube channel has gained over a million subscribers. I believe these types of documentaries may be our path to reaching an audience that numbers in the millions.
Sustaining this success
Right now, I have more questions than answers, and that’s why I am at Stanford as a 2025 John S. Knight Journalism Fellow. I’m searching for solutions to three critical issues, which are closely related to the problems I outlined.
How can we fund this work?
Producing documentary films is far more expensive than writing articles. It requires a large team, which we simply cannot afford to maintain full-time as an exiled media outlet. In theory, monetization on YouTube, accessible to most users, should help address this issue. However, in an ironic twist, YouTube’s efforts to combat Russian propaganda have inadvertently benefited Vladimir Putin: monetization has been disabled across the entire territory of Russia. This decision has stripped independent journalists like us of one of the few remaining sources of (albeit modest) income.
- How do we film what we cannot film?
This problem has both technical and creative aspects. On a practical level, we cannot travel to Russia to film the subject of our investigations because we would be arrested. On a creative level, much of our investigative work relies on documents and conversations with sources (though they are fewer now, we still have some). However, this does not lend itself to compelling visuals — the kind of engaging footage that viewers want to see in a documentary. This is one of the most challenging issues we face.
Who can help us?
It seems that collaboration with both Russian and Western colleagues could help solve at least some of our problems. For instance, we would love to publish our content not only on YouTube but also on other platforms or to produce it in partnership with experienced documentarians. Such collaborations could provide new avenues for distribution, funding, and creative input.
These questions are difficult, and the answers are not immediately obvious. But if there’s one thing we’ve learned, it’s that despite the obstacles, there is still a demand for independent, investigative journalism — even from a media outlet in exile. We may not have all the answers yet, but we’re committed to finding them, one story at a time. And perhaps, in the process, we’ll discover that building an audience that numbers in the millions is not just a distant dream, but a goal within our reach.
I recognize that the solutions we seek will not come from one source alone. That’s why I invite those with ideas, expertise, or a passion for independent journalism to reach out to me.
