‘They ban Russian media because they are afraid of our truth’

TASS Director-General Andrey Kondrashov told Harici: “The West is afraid of our truth. This is the only reason why they are shutting down the Russian media”.

As part of the media forum organised in Moscow by the Global Council of Journalists (GCJ) and Russia’s official state news agency TASS, Andrey Kondrashov, the Director-General of the agency, answered questions of journalist Esra Karahindiba for Harici.

Kondrashov talked about the sanctions imposed on Russian media by the West and the working conditions of Russian journalists in the international arena. Commenting on the Russia-Ukraine war, Kondrashov said, “This war would have ended years ago if the West had not supported it.”

* I want to start talking about the sanctions against Russia. It’s also including the press part. Russian journalists all around the world, especially in Europe and the ones in the US are having difficulties. And some of them are like persona-non-grata. So, in general I would like to listen your view on how the journalism is being done recently by the Russian journalists. What are the main difficulties?

What we are witnessing right now is a totally unprecedented situation from the unfriendly countries towards the Russian journalists especially for who are outside of Russia. We were shocked in 2015 firstly when we recognized the sanctions especially targeting the correspondents and the press. All our colleagues abroad could not even comment how the sanctions could be implemented against the freedom of speech. After 2022, Western politics made the resolution of sanctions to include mass media in the list of sanctions and picked some of the journalists as if they are part of politics and military. It became insane.

There are some surprising moments that bring joy to us.  There are many of us who still remember USSR because we were born in USSR.  We still remember the time when people were closing the doors of kitchen and catching on the channels of, as we called during the USSR, “the enemy voices” such as Freedom Radio, Voice of America, Deutche Welle… And people were afraid to be punished because government at that time was keeping people away from the truth. Because only from Western radio stations you could know the numbers about the economy and political circle. And now we have changed the shoes with the west completely. 

Because now the West is scared of our truth that belongs to us. I guess this is the only motivation for the West for shutting down Russian media. The thing they call “Russian Propaganda” is the reason why they are closing the mass media and restricting Russian journalists from working. If to look at the reality recently, it’s not Russian propaganda. It’s the truth which the West is afraid of. 

You can ask any Western journalist who is accredited here in Russia if he or she has any restrictions or difficulties while working here. They will answer that “No, there are no restrictions”. Because we behave to the journalists of mass media here as it was before.  At the time being, we destructed the illusions of USSR towards western journalists.

* But the thing is that there are so many outspoken stories about opponent Russian journalists. What is your take on this?

When we speak the dissident journalism, what should we call “dissident journalism”? For example in Türkiye, when the war is taking place it’s restricted by law to claim about the injured and casualties. If we call opposition journalism which is being something against law, telling lies about Russian Federation and Russian army, this is very right and logical to prevent telling lies by law. 

If we talk about the political views of the media, they have a huge field for their activities. There is a myth in Russian Federation that all the press and all the mass media are controlled by the government. But that’s not so. Now we have 70 thousand registered media outlets here in Russian Federation. And from this 70 thousand, 65 thousand are non-governmental. So, only five to ten per cent of media outlets belong to the government. Non-governmental media outlets have their own commercial management.

If we are considering them as free in comparison with other journalists and their actions, for example British publications about lies on White Helmets, or other organizations and mass media outlets creating fake information about politics. So these are illusions that we said goodbye after the collapse of the USSR. 

When the West decided to teach Russian journalists how to work, how to behave, how to be a journalist after the collapse of the USSR, we had hundreds and hundreds of courses and programmes all around the world on how to learn how to be a journalist. I, myself finished the program in Baltic Media Center in Bornholm, Denmak, we were taught how to be tolerant. We now realize that what kind of tolerance we were talking at that time when most particular society in Europe is ready to incorporate other people from other cultures. The Arabs in France are absolutely separated from the society. The same destiny was for the Turkish people in Germany. They told that multiculturalism is a complete segregation of the society. Unlike Russia where there is an interaction between the cultures, cuisines and etc. 

* I want to go back to sanctions issue. How are Russian journalists are doing their jobs in Europe and the US? I mean how do you get the news flow in a healthy way? 

Of course our journalists are facing many difficulties in working process and in political process nowadays. In some countries, our journalists are restricted to get accredited or their accreditations are declined. They cannot enter the press centers where they used to work inside.  Different countries are now closing the bank accounts of our representatives. And we cannot pay the rent fee of our offices. As a result, many of the media has lost their audience because all federal tv channels are shut down abroad all Federation’s channels, state tv and primarily RT. 

And now tv broadcasting has switched to internet. In this case, Russian audience in the west is now surfing into internet and searching for the tv channels which they used to watch and be interested in.

In Russia we have a saying that the water will find the hole. It means that Russian journalists, Russian mass media will find their audience no matter how many foreign communities are trying to prevent the journalists. 

Last but not least, TASS Agency has plans to spread and widen it’s offices all around the world. 

* I want to ask you, as a journalist and as a manager of Russia’s state news agency. How do you see the front line in Ukraine?

I have been in the frontline numerous times and I know how difficult and dangerous it is for journalists to work there. 

What is happening right now in Palestine and Israel where people are killing each other cruelly and every single day, they are acting like mirror to one another. 

You might be surprised that if I say that Russian journalists who are working along with Russian military forces really feel the pain for the death of not only the Ukrainian civilians but also the Ukrainian military forces. 

This war could be over long, long years ago if there was no support from the Western countries. By the way, of course, you know that Türkiye was acting very committed in helping Ukrainian army a lot, at least, in the beginning.

Everyone knows that the more weapons are given to Ukraine, the more Ukrainian people are dying. Now, no one is surprised that the West has strictly told Zelensky keep the war continue till the last Ukrainian dies.  Everyone needs peace, the Ukrainians and the Russians. Everyone needs it except for the politicians who are managed by the hands of Washington.

* While criticizing the countries who are supporting Ukraine in military terms, supporting them by giving them arms and guns and other weapons… Yes, according to your opinion, there might be NATO, there might be the US behind Ukraine’s stance or struggle, but while telling me all of these, can you understand the patriotism of Ukrainians like the patriotism of Russians?

I can talk about the roots of Ukrainian war for a very long time, for hours and hours. 

How would you answer if Russia started to provide weapons to sponsor Kurds? Would you call the “Russian patriotism” for the state of Kurdistan?

Because the Ukrainians killed actually the Russians who spoke Russian in the territory of Ukraine, pretty much in the same manner with the Kurds who had terroristic activity in Türkiye. 

* But let me tell you that this is not an imagination, this is a fact that PKK’s Syrian branch YPG has a basement in Moscow. This not like, “if”. This is not a “what if” answer what you tell me. Moscow, I mean, Russia has supported YPG in the past, they let them keep their office in Moscow, right?

This is the first thing. And the second thing is, as a journalist here, I don’t want to be speaking as a member of Turkish government, but the fact is Ukraine is an independent country recognized by the United Nations after the collapse of Soviet Union, and the same doesn’t go for PKK’s so-called Kurdistan within the land of Türkiye. 

Well, I am also not responsible for the position Russian government, we are all journalists here. 

But as you mention there was an office of Kurdish organization in Moscow in the pas t. Yet, I can tell you that there are offices of the Chechen separatist groups and the Circassian separatist groups in Türkiye. In Moscow, there is not, but in Türkiye there is, right now. 

But this is still politics. Let’s go back to journalism.

* Yeah, fair enough. So, my last question is about Russian public opinion. Do you follow surveys? Do you follow public opinions or questionnaires? How is the situation by people of Russia towards the war in Ukraine? How is the support to Russian government?

In Russia Federation, there are now three centers which observe the public opinion and making surveys. One of them is governmental and two of them are private. And they are regularly doing surveys about the public opinion. If someone has any doubt about the numbers given by the state center, they can check the numbers given by the private center.

This is the case if to talk about public opinion on politics and government actions and etc. We should focus on the comments of our audience more.

Regarding the electronic media, we have the media scope system which measures the activities of TV audience in the whole country. Digital media, digital newspapers, digital news agencies and etc., they are effective in measuring the audience who visit the web sites.The printed press is mostly characterized by printed circulation. You cannot deny this.

* This was my last question. But is there anything that I did not ask you but you would like to tell me?

Yes, I have something to tell you. No matter what is happening in the world now, no matter which decisions are taken by politicians, the press should understand the fact that we should not cut the relations between one another.

In spite of the fact that now many countries are sanctioning to Russian journalists and Russian media, for example Russian news agency TASS now still continues it’s international cooperation with the other news agencies as before the special operation. 

Because, if not us, who will be influencing the opinions of our people today or tomorrow?

No matter how many wars are happening in this minute, anyway in the future all of us will have the new beginning in our countries for our people and we should create the future all together.