If you are horrified at what you are hearing/seeing and the Russian people are not, please think about this request. Ruth

---------- Original Message ---------- From: "Monika Bauerlein, Mother Jones" <newsletters@motherjones.com> To: rryals@comcast.net Date: 03/14/2022 1:01 PM Subject: Showing up for an independent Russian newsroom.

This gave me goosebumps.

[Mother Jones] https://link.motherjones.com/click/27019483.193197/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubW90aGVya...

MoJo Reader,

I've been meaning to send a note to you all, thinking I could highlight some of our team's reporting https://link.motherjones.com/click/27019483.193197/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubW90aGVya... on Putin's alarming war in Ukraine, and that I could try to start making sense of it all with the Mother Jones community.

A fight for the survival of democracy and an independent press hits close to home for me, and I'd bet it does for a lot of you too. I've been thinking nonstop about what it means for us in the States, for truth-telling journalism in particular, and what folks like us can do about it—but that bigger-picture piece is going to have to wait, because I'm writing today with something incredible each of us can do to help right now.

We have a chance to save the largest independent news site still operating in Russia, Meduza, that Putin is trying to shut down.

Really. We do. When I got a call about this last week it gave me goosebumps (my verbal response was a resounding "#*ck yeah, we're in!"): Along with dozens of other independent newsrooms in Europe and the US, we're all wholeheartedly asking our readers to show up for Meduza and support their vital, unfiltered journalism at this moment of dire need.

Read Meduza's letter to international supporters and become their newest member https://link.motherjones.com/click/27019483.193197/aHR0cHM6Ly9zYXZlLm1lZHV6Y... . I did, and countless people like you, here and abroad, are learning about this effort today and will hopefully do the same.

Meduza is a crowd-funded investigative newsroom that goes after abuses of power and corruption in Russia; some of their investigations, like this one about state-run military training for children https://link.motherjones.com/click/27019483.193197/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cudGhlZ3Vhc... , have been published in English but most of their work is about serving and informing a large Russian audience. Wisely, they have been preparing for a crackdown for years—packing their go bags, getting set up on servers outside Russia, and so on.

When Putin brought the hammer down, they all left the country and are now scattered across Europe, but they are determined to keep their reporting going. Their readers were prepared too, so despite the fact it's been blocked, millions of Russians continue to access their independent journalism to find out what the Kremlin and state-run media will not tell them. Check out https://link.motherjones.com/click/27019483.193197/aHR0cHM6Ly9tZWR1emEuaW8vZ... their English language website and fearless journalism and you'll see why.

However, because of the sanctions and because it is now essentially a crime to support them as part of Putin's clampdown on truth-tellers, they have lost virtually all their 30,000 supporters in Russia—their revenue dried up overnight, right at a time when their reporting is as essential as it ever will be. In the past few weeks Putin has shut down or muzzled https://link.motherjones.com/click/27019483.193197/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cud2FzaGluZ... what remained of the Russian independent press, from the venerable dissident newspaper Novaya Gazeta to the feisty Echo of Moscow radio station, the independent TV RAIN, and others—TV RAIN's final broadcast and the chilling story behind playing "Swan Lake https://link.motherjones.com/click/27019483.193197/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuaHVmZnBvc... " is a must-watch. It's a familiar story: Authoritarians go after independent media because they know the truth is powerful.

So right now, along with dozens of other independent newsrooms, our hope is to replace Meduza's cut-off supporters in Russia with new supporters in Europe and the US. You can hear from Meduza and sign up as a supporter on their special page for US and European allies that just went live https://link.motherjones.com/click/27019483.193197/aHR0cHM6Ly9zYXZlLm1lZHV6Y... .

I could not be more excited to invite the Mother Jones community to be among the first and among the many to rally for Meduza, for democracy, and for a strong and independent press in a very concrete way right now. It's been deeply inspiring talking with my colleagues from member-funded newsrooms across borders (disclosure: including my sister in Germany!) who are coming together right now to do the same. And I could not be more in awe of the immensely brave Russian journalists who are putting their lives on the line to report the truth. Their fight is our fight, and their predicament is, in a chilling way, the logical outcome of the authoritarian, anti-truth impulse that we have seen rising in this country as well.

I got to meet Meduza's editor-in-chief, Ivan Kolpakov, and some of his colleagues on hastily assembled Zoom calls with MoJo and other independent news outlets last week. "People are surrounded by propaganda narratives," he said. "A lot of people believe that the Russian military is destroying military infrastructure and not bombing cities. They don't know about the refugees. Our role is to bring this war to our readers. We need to destroy this wall between the war and Russians."

Learn more about what's happening with Meduza and step in for a Russian reader who can no longer support them today https://link.motherjones.com/click/27019483.193197/aHR0cHM6Ly9zYXZlLm1lZHV6Y... . They literally are the only big Russian news organization that can report truthfully about the war right now—and be read by Russians in Russia.

Asking the Mother Jones community to become members of an independent Russian newsroom wasn't on my 2022 bingo card. But very little of what's happened the last two years has been on anyone's bingo card. And amid the shocking headlines and feelings of helplessness, it's so empowering to find ourselves part of a worldwide movement of people fighting for truth and democracy. I know a lot of you in the Mother Jones community will be inspired by Meduza's story https://link.motherjones.com/click/27019483.193197/aHR0cHM6Ly9zYXZlLm1lZHV6Y... and have their back: It's what you've always done, showing up for hard-hitting journalism that oligarchs and corporate conglomerates will never pay for.

And I have no doubt that, along with several international partners, we can help Meduza replace their cut-off support in Russia and show Putin that his crackdown is no match for a global community of people determined to defend the truth and democracy. We're continuing to look for other ways we can support independent newsrooms in crisis (for example, supporting journalists in Ukraine https://link.motherjones.com/click/27019483.193197/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZnJlZXByZ... ), and I'm excited to bring you all along in this work as we go.

Thanks for reading, and for everything you do to make independent journalism happen.

[Monika] Monika Bauerlein, CEO Mother Jones

Donate https://link.motherjones.com/click/27019483.193197/aHR0cHM6Ly9zZWN1cmUubW90a...

[Mother Jones] https://link.motherjones.com/click/27019483.193197/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubW90aGVya...

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