Putin’s lackeys shut down my Russian friend’s news site. So I bought him another one.
Since the invasion of the Ukraine started, we’re not seeing the word “heroism” applied to Russians a whole lot.
But I want to tell you about a friend and hero of mine. And he’s a Russian.
His name is German (Herman) Galkin, and until recently he was an award-winning investigative journalist for a website in Chelyabinsk called lentachel.ru.
I won’t bother to link to it because it wouldn’t do you any good. On March 6, all content was stripped from the site and access shut down by the Russian censorship bureau Roskomnadzor, because of its coverage of what Vladimir Putin’s government insists not be called a “war” or “invasion” going on in the Ukraine.
German’s a longtime critic of Putin and wrote about opposition to what Putin demands be called his “special military operation.”
German and his colleagues had hoped the website would escape a shutdown by balancing their honest reporting with dispatches from pro-Kremlin political scientists and the Russian military.
But journalistic balance is not what Roskomnadzor requires.
I met German 12 years ago when he and other Russian journalists visited The Eagle to tell us what they were doing to advance a free and independent press at home — and pick up a few tips from us. A memento from the delegation, a small decorative toy horse, still sits on my desk and I’ve traded texts with German ever since.
The Russian government crackdown on journalists has popped up on American media radar lately because of the Ukrainian invasion. But it’s been going on for quite a while.
Three years ago, German was fined 40,000 rubles — about a month’s pay — for suggesting that a government anti-marijuana campaign would be better directed at fighting the rampant alcoholism that’s ruined far more lives in Chelyabinsk.
This is not my first experience with Russian journalists. When I was a fresh-out-of-college reporter in Burbank, circa 1983, I covered visitors on a “cultural exchange” between the Soviet and American press corps.
In a private moment, a couple of the Soviets told me how fortunate I was to be starting my career in a country where press freedom is taken seriously.
The Soviet Constitution, they explained, also guaranteed freedom of the press. But in practice, it was a joke. Everything from the police briefs to the sports page was controlled by the government and if you didn’t self-censor, they’d do it for you.
It was a very weird conversation, because the whole time they were telling me this, they had these huge grins on their faces.
I soon found out why.
A one-armed but amazingly fit-looking older man came to our table and pulled up a chair: “My friends! My friends! It’s good to see you getting along so well.”
My newfound comrades suddenly and seamlessly shifted the conversation to the Lakers.
Even 23-year-old me was savvy enough to make Mr. One Arm as their KGB minder.
The staff of lentachel.ru is going to Russian court in hopes of getting their website restored.
In the meantime, I celebrated Freedom of Information Day on Wednesday by buying the domain lentachel.com and a year of web hosting, which I have gifted to German and his colleagues.
I’m hopeful they can fill up this new platform in the coming days with some real news from Chelyabinsk.
And to my Wichita peeps: The next time you read something that irritates you and you’re tempted to go online and pop off about the “lamestream media” or why Facebook should be government regulated, think twice.
That road leads to very dark place where none of us want to go.
Just ask German Galkin.
