A Russian TV Journalist Denounces Putin's Government's “Propaganda”

Russian television correspondent Zhanna Agalakova watched for years abroad the drift of the Russian government until the invasion of Ukraine led her to resign and stay in Paris, from where she denounces the regime's “propaganda”.

From news manipulation to constant references to Ukrainian “Nazism”, the journalist assured at a press conference organized by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) that Vladimir Putin's government is lying to Russian citizens.

“I want Russia to hear me, for people to learn to recognize propaganda, to stop being zombies,” Agalakova explained during the press conference on Tuesday.

“I had a lot of hesitation” before taking the floor, “but I don't think I have any other choice,” he added with tears in his eyes.

Why now and not before the war in Ukraine?

“Throughout my career I have accepted things,” he explained, but the invasion “was a red line,” he said.

In mid-March, another television journalist, Marina Ovsiannikova, caused a sensation inside and outside Russia by breaking into the broadcast of Pervy Kanal's large-audience news program with a banner denouncing the offensive and also the “propaganda” of the Putin regime.

“In recent days we are witnessing turbulence within these propaganda media,” said RSF Secretary General Christophe Deloire, who nevertheless declined to analyze their impact within Russia.

Paris correspondent for Pervy Kanal (public broadcaster), Agalakova says she resigned on March 3, a week after the invasion of Ukraine.

The Russian media “only broadcasts the Kremlin's point of view,” he added.

“Our newscasts don't show what is happening in the country. Only the leader of the country is shown, what he has eaten, who shook hands with, even bare-chested. But we don't know if he is married, if he has children,” added the journalist.

- The obsession of war -

“Power is trying to stifle independent media,” he added.

To justify the invasion, “the government uses extremely sensitive springs for the Russians,” he explained, referring to the memory of World War II and the 27 million Soviets who perished in the conflict against Nazi Germany.

“When you hear the word Nazi in Russia there is only one reaction: 'we have to put an end to that'. It is a manipulation, a huge lie”, criticized the journalist.

Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelensky himself has rejected these accusations and repeatedly recalled that he is a Jew.

Agalakova has not worked in her country since 2005. That year he began his journey as a foreign correspondent, first in Paris, then in New York in 2013 and back to the French capital.

“I thought that by explaining life in Europe, particularly in Paris, I could avoid being a propagandist,” she said.

The journalist detailed in particular her experience in the United States, when the Russian invasion of the Crimea Peninsula occurred in 2014.

“I wasn't on the sidelines of propaganda. I should only explain negative things about the United States, such as abused adopted children,” he explained.

“I didn't lie, every fact was real. But if you take real facts and mix them up, you end up with a big lie,” he acknowledged.

“Many journalists, producers and people working in the (Russian) media think like me,” he added.

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