Continue to call war as war: Nobel laureate Muratov on defying Kremlin diktat

“We continue to call war war. We are waiting for the consequences,” Dmitry Muratov, a Nobel laureate and editor-in-chief of independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, told the New Yorker in an interview – highlighting how independent voices are standing up against Kremlin’s orders to cover the war in Ukraine.

It has been widely reported that Russian communications regulators have issued orders which seek to control how Russian media covers the war, banning the use of the words ‘war’, ‘occupation’ and ‘invasion’.

On Wednesday, Max Seddon, the Moscow bureau chief of Financial Times, tweeted that Russia “is also threatening to ban Wikipedia for an article called ‘Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022’ because of ‘illegally disseminated information’ about Russian military and Ukrainian civilian casualties, as well as bank runs.”

On what he expected for his publication in the next weeks, Muratov, in the interview published on February 28, said, “We will not become propagandists. We respect the sovereignty of Ukraine—and the sovereignty of Novaya Gazeta.”

He also shed light on anti-war sentiment among Russian citizens. “Russian intellectuals have also had their say: writers, screenwriters, journalists, scientists…Nearly 30 still-existing independent publications simultaneously issued a statement about the impossibility of war. So, this time, society’s customary indifference is absent.”

Speaking about the impact of the ongoing crisis on his publication he said that Novaya Gazeta may be “in for a very difficult period” because they haven't incorporated the state’s “official point of view” in their reportage. “We work according to our own standards. We trust our special correspondents who work in Ukraine and the people in our newsroom, who verify every fact.”

Muratov also said that the publication has journalists reporting for them from the war zone and border areas. “I am very worried about our journalists working in the war zone and in the border areas – and about those who cover the rallies in Moscow. I hope we keep everyone safe,” he said.

Muratov was awarded the Nobel peace prize in 2021 along with Filipino-American journalist and Rappler CEO Maria Ressa for “their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression”.