Thread by @BadBalticTakes

TV Rain (known as Дождь / Dozhd in Russian) moved from Russia to Latvia earlier this year, but its license here has just been revoked.

Seen a lot of bad Baltic takes about it over the past week, but a lot more are incoming!

So let’s talk about TV Rain 🧵…

TV Rain is critical of Putin. Well, as critical as can be for a station born out of Putin’s Russia. Whether it opposes Russian imperialism is another matter.

Among other problematic reporting, it has falsely stated Crimea is Russia & illegally entered Ukraine through Russia.

It previously excused that as a requirement for operating under Russian law …but it didn’t change its line after leaving Russia.

Just last week, it was fined by Latvia’s media regulator for again falsely showing Crimea as Russia and calling Russian troops “our boys”.

As it’s now a Latvian channel, that’s legally problematic in all kinds of ways relating to rules around accuracy in broadcasting, protecting the constitutional order of Latvia, and not using the country as a base to support terrorism and genocide abroad.

The regulator fined the channel €10,000 and said that was the channel’s 2nd serious violation in recent months, while pointing out that a third could lead to its license being revoked.

But that wasn’t TV Rain’s biggest controversy of last week.

Host Alexey Korostelev said TV Rain helps Russian troops “for example, with equipment & basic amenities at the front”.

It caused outrage. Latvia’s State Security Service launched an investigation & politicians demanded a rethink of TV Rain’s presence.

TV Rain acted fairly swiftly in an attempt to limit the damage. They described Korostelev’s comment as “erroneous & unacceptable”, reaffirmed they don’t support the war, clarified nothing is supplied by them to Russian troops, and fired Korostelev.

Korostelev later said he feels sorry for mobilised troops, but only helps them by sharing their stories …and he misspoke.

The ‘mispoke’ excuse has been repeated by the channel & its supporters. Three other employees quit in solidarity with him.

But he didn’t simply misspeak.

Because what he meant to say is that TV Rain’s reporting helps pressure Russia into providing better conditions for its forces committing genocide in Ukraine.

That’s also reprehensible - & raises wider questions about what the point of the Russian opposition actually is.

Better conditions for Russia’s troops enables it to colonise & annihilate its neighbours more easily.

That stance might grow support for the channel inside Russia but it further erodes global goodwill towards the opposition.

It’s not what opposition movements elsewhere do.

Now, it’s hard to say with Russia who is genuinely in the opposition and who is in the “opposition”. While some do genuinely & bravely oppose the regime, the regime also clearly keeps a degree of control over some influential voices who merely play the role of opposition.

But opposition or “opposition”, we too often see much of the movement prone to an imperialist attitude, repeat Kremlin propaganda, lecture neighbours, use slurs, play bothsidesism, & unable to clarify where Russia’s border ends. Some don’t even think Russians abroad need protest.

One prominent opposition journalist, for example, likes to police the anger about the genocide abroad, deriding language like ‘orcs’ for Russian troops. He later said that, in revenge, the opposition would just continue the genocide more efficiently if it gained power.

These fault lines existed long before the full scale war.

Note that many of those criticising us now for criticising Russia’s opposition are often the same people who previously ridiculed us for thinking Putin would turn out this bad and launch this full scale war.

They didn’t really understand Russia’s descent into genocidal imperialism & its impact on everyone else. Now they can’t understand that the start of this full scale war changed everything & there’s zero tolerance elsewhere now for anything less than opposing Russia’s imperialism.

Think about how much Latvians themselves have used their own time, money, & resources to get as much support as possible to Ukraine.

So for opposition journalists to be based in Latvia displaying this attitude is such a huge failure to read the room, let alone comply with laws.

But patience for TV Rain has finally run out in Latvia.

The regulator said “the management of TV Rain did not understand the nature & gravity of each individual infringement, nor of any set of infringements,” adding that “laws of Latvia must be followed & respected by everyone”.

I do feel sorry for people at TV Rain who got involved because they genuinely do want Russia to be a normal free country within its actual borders.

But now is a time for serious reflection within the Russian opposition. It starts with listening to victims of Russian imperialism.

Personally, I know Russian citizens & citizens of Baltic countries who identify as Russian who are unequivocally genuinely opposed to Russian imperialism. They donate supplies to Ukraine, demand more arms to Ukraine, and clearly state all Ukraine is Ukraine, including Crimea.

In fact, the first person from the Baltic states to receive a medal from Ukraine for fighting for Ukraine’s sovereignty in this full scale war is an Estonian citizen who identifies as Russian and says he has an obligation to do everything he can to stop Russia’s genocide.

Now, that is opposition.