Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the censorship laws that followed shattered the Russian media landscape. If a media outlet or a journalist wants to openly report about the war against Ukraine, it has to do it from abroad to avoid fines or even jail time. Many media outlets that keep operating within Russia (except for some regional outlets), have therefore turned, even more straightforwardly since the full-scale war, into Kremlin mouthpieces.

Yet there’s one media niche which still succeeds in conveying some hard-hitting truths about contemporary Russia despite still being based in the country and having prevalent close ties to the Russian authorities: the business media. Among the most well-known examples are the business daily Kommersant and the broadcaster RBK, as well as the financial newspaper Vedomosti.

To be clear, these media outlets still operate under the Kremlin’s censorship regime; for example, they do not use the words “war” or “invasion” unless quoting a higher official, such as the Kremlin’s spokesperson or Vladimir Putin himself. Major Russian business media are mostly owned by Kremlin-friendly businessmen as a result of decades-long crackdown on free press by Putin’s regime, and they are largely shadows of their former selves today. (The sector of truly independent business media is dominated by The Bell, a startup founded by Vedomosti and RBK alumni; its leaders left Russia, and the organisation was designated a “foreign agent” by the Kremlin).

As media outlets that report stories from the business world, they are much more exposed to the censorship law that dictates that they should not call for sanctions against Russia, an “offence” that brings fines or even up to three years of imprisonment (with the definition of a “call” being open to interpretation). Much of the news that they produce, however, still manages to reflect Russia and the changes in its society in a critical and professional way.

Hard-hitting news

Although Russian business media occasionally cover fairly positive stories that were born due to sanctions, such as this McDonald’s replacement, they also point to issues such as the lack of personnel on the labour market due to mobilisation and the raising costs in various industries, or that Russians are still hesitant to return to their homeland after the mobilisation announcement.

They also show concern about the value fall of the Russian rouble, raise doubts about whether new food court projects could succeed due to the drop in sales and customers in similar places since the start of the invasion, and report about how the sanctions and withdrawal of foreign companies from Russia have negatively affected the real estate market and the fishing industry, or how Russian film studios still depend on foreign equipment, to mention only some.

These stories contrast sharply with the reports seen on TV and most other newspapers that are more oriented into general news reporting, which tend to only praise new Russian business initiatives and cherish new products, claiming that they are going to replace the foreign ones by outbeating them in quality and price and even in being more “eco-friendly”. In some cases, general interest outlets focus only on telling that the sanctions imposed only make the West suffer through economic constraints and political discord.

True, the above-mentioned business media consistently use imposed euphemisms and Kremlin-imposed expressions such as “special military operation”, “introduction of troops into Ukraine”, “partial mobilisation”, “military actions”, “new territories” (Russian euphemism for “occupied territories”), or the beloved “provocation”, and use the preposition “na” (on) and not “v” (in) Ukraine (as opposed to The Bell, which uses the latter), which implies that Ukraine is just a region on the Russian borders. However, they consistently name the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky by his official title and spell his name appropriately and present his statements in a fairly neutral way, if compared to TV reports or other newspapers, which have been recently fond of calling him names, implying that he will not be the head of state for much longer, mocking the Ukrainian leader for “urgently” legalising cannabis on Constitution day and framing him as a drug addict and a “schizophrenic” (not to mention the much worn-out accusation of him being a “Nazi”).

What makes business outlets different?

What are the elements that make Russian business publishers stand out from other media that still operate in Russia, unblocked and not stigmatised by hostile labels?

As mentioned, they cover a spectrum of news, and fairly objectively pointing to what is good and flagging what is less so, and they back their concerns by reaching out to experts. They also rely on a broad array of data which often comes from private companies, and do not only directly quote higher officials or other Russian institutions. Most often they do run these quotes in the breaking news feed, while adding experts’ comments on those words in a longer article.

Their main protagonists are often companies, currencies, regulatory institutions, and courts. If they profile or interview a CEO, it is because of the success of the latter’s business. And while they also publish opinion pieces, these are not written using offensive language. Also, as business media outlets, they don’t focus as much on human stories, anti-war protests nor have reporters in military zones, which are topics which are most polarising in the Russian media landscape – and usually reach a wider audience.

True, sometimes this leads to the feeling that there’s an “elephant” in their reporting, as they mention an effect of the invasion without flagging the reason upfront, digging it deep into the article (for example, mentioning sanctions without noting that they have been imposed due to the war, alongside using euphemisms). The business media outlets still operating in Russia also tend to report on the “Russian” side of things, as opposed to The Bell, which offers a more balanced view by quoting Ukrainian sources that go beyond Zelensky’s presidential office.

Still, it seems that all of these media outlets are walking on thin ice with their reporting, and it is only a matter of time for it to break.

Russian business media: how to report about the elephant in the room

Veronica Snoj

Russia-based business media still gets to convey bits of truth about the fallout of the invasion, while shying away from covering the war itself

Author

Veronica Snoj

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