"Blood on your hands": anti-Putin headlines on TV and more surprises in Russian media on May 9

Anti-Putin headlines in Lenta.ru

On May 9, pro-Kremlin Russian publication Lenta.ru, published more than ten materials criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine.

According to Novaya Gazeta Europe, the texts later disappeared from the site, but a copy is available in the web archive.

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The headlines of several articles read: “Record spending on the army did not help Russia defeat Ukraine”, “Russian authorities forbade journalists to talk about the negative situation”, “Russia completely destroyed Mariupol” and “Ukraine disrupted Putin’s plans”.

At the beginning of the materials, there was a disclaimer: “this material has not been agreed with the leadership, and for its publication, the Presidential Administration will punish us for to the publications, in other words: URGENTLY MAKE A SCREENSHOT before it is deleted.”

Responsibility for the publication was taken by the head of the departments “Economy” and “Habitat” Yegor Polyakov, as well as editor Alexandra Miroshnikova. The source of the Mediazona confirmed that the publications were made by employees of these departments – they replaced the texts of already published news.

Mediazona also published a statement by journalists who made anti-war texts.

“After massive blocking, there is almost no media left in the country that can be watched without a VPN or doomscrolling in the cart [meaning the excessive consumption of news from the Telegram messenger — JAMnews]. We have a gigantic audience, which I, among other things, put a lot of effort into, so Sasha and I decided that such a performance would be the only true one”, Polyakov noted.

He added that they had “already talked to him” and suggested that together with Miroshnikova they no longer work at Lenta.ru.

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“Blood on your hands”

Anti-war materials on the Lenta.ru website were not the only surprise in the Russian media space on May 9th.

In the morning, users of Russian television services found a message with the text instead of the TV program guide:

“The blood of thousands of Ukrainians and hundreds of their murdered children is on your hands. TV and the authorities are lying – no to war.

The same inscription accompanied TV programs in the form of a running line.