‘We are now turning to Asia to access global knowledge’

Pavel A. Negoitsa, General Director of Rossiyskaya Gazeta, Russia’s official government newspaper, spoke to Harici. Negoitsa said that the ‘new reality’ must be accepted if there are to be peace negotiations.

More than a year and a half has passed since the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Although the recent events in Gaza have shifted the focus back to the Middle East, the Ukrainian front is still hot. However, especially in Western countries, ‘war fatigue’ has set in and the aid sent to Ukraine is being questioned by politicians and the public.

In Moscow, journalist Esra Karahindiba conducted an interview with Pavel A. Negoitsa, General Director of Rossiyskaya Gazeta, one of the most established and largest newspapers of the country founded after the collapse of the Soviet Union, on whether ‘war fatigue’ has affected the Russian public, the current state of public support for the war and the effects of embargoes on the country’s media.

Can you please start with describing your newspaper? What are the main characteristics of Rossiyskaya Gazeta? 

It’s a general interest newspaper. It’s a governmental newspaper. We have a Daily one and a weekly newspaper. We have a historical magazine …. We have 31 representatives of our Office throughout Russia from Kaliningrad to Sakhalin. We have representatives as well mainly in Europe but we also have representatives in the US, China and Japan. 

Regarding the sanctions against Russian journalists, have the sanctions been effective? What is the latest situation? How do you follow the news and report from the US and Europe?

In fact, the sanctions do not affect our journalists. We get information in the same way as we did it before. We have contracts throughout the world to get the information from different sources.

What is the Russian public opinion about the war with Ukraine? Because it’s now more than one year and a half. Are the Russian people tired of war? How is public support to government? 

We were in the World War II. We suffered long and we know what war means. Of course, all the people are tired of that. But it does not make the level of the support to the government less. We know that it’s very hard and people are tired. But we know that we have to come to negotiation for peace. But this peace negotiations should accept the new reality. 

What is the new reality?

We have the new territories that are now Russian. And that should be accepted. The Crimea is Russian since 2014. Those new territories need to have the right to speak Russian because it’s national language. It’s similar to this: Somebody comes to Türkiye and say, this part of Türkiye will not speak Turkish language. And for Russia, in its body, does not need to have NATO structures. It’s not the security. It’s threat. We do understand that it’s not a peaceful organization. It’s a military organization. We saw what happened in Yugoslavia, what happened in Iraq. And we see what is going on in the world because of NATO’s “peaceful attempts”. 

Do you have any reporters deported or announced persona-non-grata? 

A couple of days ago, there was a kind of provocation in Cyprus (Greek side). It was not a deportation. Our journalist in Cyprus was sent away from the country. If you ask me about the sanctions about Russian people, it’s also not effective as it was meant to be. It’s very strange first to announce global economic market and try to split it. It’s strange behavior of the US and Europe. 

What is the latest situation about the Russian journalists all around Europe? Do they have any problem? Can they do their jobs freely? 

The journalists working for RT television are blocked everywhere. The same goes for Radio Sputnik journalists. Any person who is trying to explain Russia’s position to the world is blocked everywhere. The worst is that Russian culture is blocked and forbidden everywhere. It affects exhibitions, singers, artists, sportsmen. They are all prohibited and prevented everywhere. You can see that the life in Moscow does not stop. Of course, that situation is inconvenient and nobody is happy about that but life does not stop. In Russia it was a historical feature when there were some difficulties, all the people become stronger, they gather and continue to move on their own way. Of course, we do not agree with everything that happens in the world. Our government and out country have their own view on what is going on in the world. And we do not want to follow all the rest to go our own way. 

What about your newspaper approach? Do you say only what your government says?

Journalism is a free profession. We have an editorial policy and we follow this policy. And the journalists who follow with us, they also follow this policy. We can publish the materials of the liberal persons but we will not publish any material which is opposite of the state’s statements. It’s not because we are afraid of the sanction which may come from our government. We have journalists who have their own view about the situation and it mainly corresponds with the government’s position. If a journalist working for our newspaper has a different view from the editorial policy of Rossiyskaya Gazeta, he or she is free to go to any other liberal newspaper. Do you think that any other liberal newspaper or any liberal media do not have its own editorial policy? Do you think if he comes to any liberal media and can say that “the government is right in this way or other way”? Do you think this will be published in liberal media? Therefore, we are more tolerant to liberal way of thinking than any other opposite side. We are established by the government but we are not a governmental body. Our government does not belong to any particular political party. So, we do not have ministers that is part of one political party or another. Our newspaper is the place where you can say your position freely but it should not contradict the laws.

Recently, because of the sanctions, Russian media is kind of trapped. Do you look for other international cooperation? What and which regions and which countries are your priorities?

We are not against the cooperation with Europe and other countries. It’s them who say that “we will not talk to Russians”. The fact is that main new process is now in Asia, in the East. We move to the East. If we are oriented only to the West, that does not mean that we do not take the global developments in the East into consideration. So that’s why we are now moving to the East to get the global information.

What is your take on the workshop you held with the Council of Global Journalists delegation who came from Türkiye? 

We appreciate the visit of Turkish delegation very much. We need to expand the meetings in bigger, wider forms. We have to meet more often and find the ways for cooperation.