«In defense of the homeland»

Military bloggers live a golden age in Russia

  • The Telegram channel Rebar (Hunter in Russian) has a much higher viewership than the Russian Defense Ministry and the Kremlin. AFP

  • Blogger Mikhail Zvinchuk achieved wide fame. AFP

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Before the Russian attack on Ukraine, Mikhail Zvinchuk's Telegram channel was known by those interested in military issues, but today its number of subscribers has risen to more than one million, surpassing a large number of media outlets.

Like him, a large number of previously unknown Russian military bloggers have become hugely popular since the beginning of the conflict and have more freedom of speech than traditional media outlets that are strictly censored by the authorities.

They do not hesitate to publish information that the authorities have not yet made public and criticize certain decisions, which makes them more credible in the eyes of the Russians and at the same time a nuisance to the military.

The founder of the Telegram channel Repar ("The Fisherman" in Russian), Mikhail Zvinchuk, told AFP that when the Russian intervention began on February 24, 2022, "the (official) institutions responsible for the media sank into chaos."

Zvinchuk, 31, added that "officials were unable to agree on information that should be made public," so "we rose to defend our homeland in the field of media, and we became its shield."

He is fluent in Arabic and English, worked in the media department of the Ministry of Defense, and was honored for his duties in Syria and Iraq.

It employs about 40 people, including graphic designers, who produce maps and graphs that are far more accurate than those published by authorities and traditional media, even adopted by Western institutions. As a result, the number of subscribers to his channel increased from 36,<> to one million in months.

Thirst for information

Tatyana Stanovata, an analyst at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, believes that these bloggers respond to "Russian thirst for information" because "the Russian Defense Ministry practically does not give any proper picture of what is happening" in Ukraine.

The bloggers are "well informed and in contact with those directly involved in the fighting," she said, noting that "although they are politically committed (in favor of the attack), they publish facts that cannot be found anywhere else."

Alexander Sladkov, a 57-year-old military correspondent for the state television channel Russia, has covered all the armed conflicts that followed the fall of the Soviet Union since 1991, particularly in Chechnya.

Today, he writes investigations in eastern Ukraine while feeding his personal Telegram channel, Sladkov+, which has more than 900,<> subscribers, twice as many subscribers as the Russian Defense Ministry and six times that of the Kremlin.

Sladkoff told AFP: "Working around the war is easy. No need to look for heroes. They're there in front of us." He vehemently denies that his work is propaganda. "I'm not a soldier in the information warfare," he said, but "a reporter who leads the viewer across the screen to places where he can't be."

Independent political expert Konstantin Kalachev said that "military reporters and bloggers have earned the trust of the people thanks to their personal courage and not hesitating to criticize the Ministry of Defense."

Observers

But the popularity and frankness of such bloggers can upset the authorities. Last fall, a number of military bloggers sharply criticized the military, after a series of setbacks in Ukraine and a mobilization of reservists said to have been overshadowed by the dispatch of outdated equipment and a lack of training.

A military reporter, Semyon Begov, accused the military at the time of compiling a list of pro-Kremlin bloggers supporting the Russian operation, whose posts should nevertheless be "verified" on suspicion of "defamation" of the military, a charge widely used to jail those critical of the attack in Ukraine.

The list includes the Rebar network, whose founder Mikhail Zvinchuk has condemned "attempts to interfere in editorial politics" by the authorities, especially since his colleague and friend Vladlin Tatarsky was killed in April in a bombing that Moscow attributed to Kiev and Russian dissidents.

Zvinchuk said they "suggest that we reduce our activity under the pretext of ensuring our safety." "We are told: we should not publish about problems. The enemy will know and use it." "But the enemy will know anyway," he added, adding that "if we publish a video of recruits facing problems and propose solutions to settle them, it will not turn us into enemies of Russia."

Before the Russian attack on Ukraine, Mikhail Zvinchuk's Telegram channel was known by those interested in military issues, but today its number of subscribers has risen to more than one million, surpassing a large number of media outlets.

Last fall, a number of military bloggers sharply criticized the military, following a series of setbacks in Ukraine and a mobilization of reservists said to have been in chaos due to the dispatch of outdated equipment and a lack of training.