On Victory Day, Russian media got hacked by the truth.
Strictly speaking, the cable TV incident could probably be described as a hacking. But the re-editing at the news site lenta.ru was more of a replacement of pro-Putin propaganda with reality-based news by two former employees at the company.
Lenta.ru briefly filled with anti-war, anti-Putin content Two employees claimed responsibility for the protest
The articles have since disappeared from the website, but they’re still available on the Internet Archive. According to the archived files, about 20 articles published by Lenta.ru’s editorial board on May 8 and 9 were replaced with articles that had different titles, including:
“Vladimir Putin has turned into a pathetic, paranoid dictator” (headline visible on the archived version of the site’s homepage)
“Russia is abandoning its soldiers’ corpses in Ukraine” (archived version)
“The Defense Ministry lied to the relatives of the people who died on the Moskva cruiser” (archived version)
“Putin’s closest associate wants to take Russia back 100 years” (archived version)
“Zelensky turned out to be cooler than Putin” (archived version)
Putin has unleashed one of the bloodiest wars of the 21st century” (archived version)
In an accompanying article, the people who temporarily edited lenta.ru with the truth have made no secret of their identity.
The article titled “It’s easier to hide economic failure with a war” says that the protest was the work of two Lenta.ru employees: Egor Polyakov, head of the outlet's Economy and Environment sections, and Alexandra Miroshnikova, an editor for those sections.
“We’re searching for work, lawyers, and, most likely, political asylum! Don’t be afraid! Don’t be silent! Fight back! You’re not alone — there are many of us! The future is ours! Fuck war. Peace to Ukraine!” the journalists wrote in the article.
So a big tip of the hat to Egor (sometimes transliterated Yegor) and Alexandra for giving heavily censored Russia a peek at reality.
Egor and Alexandra are not the first people to flee Russia since Putin’s genocidal invasion began – and they won’t be the last.
As Vladimir Putin continues to wage war and sanctions cripple the economy, young Russians may become more sceptical of the Kremlin