The women behind Tango wi...

Natalia Sindeeva and Vera Krichevskaya tell Kevin Maher about how the Kremlin banned their TV station and deleted its entire archive before they were forced to leave the country

We get as far as the second question when the Russian film director Vera Krichevskaya starts to cry. The fearless investigative journalist’s documentary F@ck this Job (renamed Tango with Putin) charts the perilous progress of the independent Russian news channel Dozhd and its many clashes with the Kremlin, often over its unfiltered coverage of Ukraine. Since the invasion, however, and the introduction of Putin’s “fake news” law (15-year prison sentences for promoting non-state-sanctioned narratives about the “special operation”), Dozhd bosses, employees and supporters have become targets of the regime.

The station was closed on March 4, and a large section of the staff fled the country for their safety. I’m talking to Krichevskaya via Zoom from an undisclosed location “somewhere in England”.

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