A year ago, an information portal was closed in Estonia, which was part of the MIA "Russia Today".

The Estonian authorities exerted unprecedented pressure on the employees of the publication: banks blocked all personal accounts of journalists, they could not receive a salary, then they began to threaten them with criminal cases.

Law enforcement officials told reporters that they were subject to personal sanctions imposed against the agency's general director Dmitry Kiselev.

As a result, the editorial office was closed.

However, on February 2, 2021, ten former employees of the publication launched a new project Sputnik Meedia.

- Elena, tell us about your new edition?

- This is a very personal story for us.

We sat without work for a year, and now we decided to open our own media.

They did not think about the name for a long time, they called it Sputnik Meedia.

After all, we are all satellites.

For example, I worked in the editorial office from the very beginning - since 2015.

Our editorial policy does not change.

We have news feed, big longreads, photography projects, podcasts.

Of course, we cannot yet go out with the same volume of materials as before.

But we have just started and there are only 10 of us.

  • Sputnik Meedia edition

- You said that the editorial policy will not change.

What was it?

- We have advocated and will continue to advocate good-neighborly relations with Russia.

We are categorically against the version of the results of the Second World War, which is presented in the mainstream media.

There cannot be an alternative point of view at all, because there is only one truth.

For example, when we launched a project dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Tallinn by the Red Army, the rest of the media titled their materials as follows: 75 years ago, the Red Army occupied Tallinn.

There are many examples.

- What are your plans for the near future?

- Of course, we will expand.

We won a grant from the Fund for Supporting Compatriots Abroad.

We are planning to launch an Estonian-language version of the portal.

Citizens should also know the alternative point of view.

When we opened, Estonians called and wrote to me, asking when there would be a version in Estonian.

And when we closed a year ago, it was the Estonians who supported us. 

I did not notice they have a special love for the Kremlin, but they were the ones who accused the mainstream media of propaganda and infringement of the alternative point of view.

We do not hide the official point of view, but at the same time we publish an alternative one.

We have always had this slogan: "we talk about what others are silent about."

- How did you react to the situation in which your colleagues from Sputnik Latvia found themselves at the end of last year?

In particular, threats to criminal cases due to alleged violations of the sanctions regime ...

- You know, I spoke at PACE a year ago.

At that time we appealed to many international organizations with an appeal to stop the arbitrariness committed by the Estonian authorities.

And during my speech, I said that Estonia has just started this process, Latvia and Lithuania will do the same.

But the Latvian colleagues were treated more harshly than us.

They weren't even warned.

I know many of them, we communicate.

It remains only to wish resilience and patience.

Hold on, brothers!

- What, in your opinion, is the reason for the Russophobic policy of the Baltic authorities?

- The fact that radical nationalists are at the helm.

The Baltics have never been distinguished by their special love for Russia, and now it is especially so.

They continue to erect monuments to those who fought on the side of the Nazis, and honor them.

Every year they hold a procession in memory of the Waffen SS legionnaires in Riga.

What else can I say?

Maybe this is a kind of "Napoleon complex"?

These are small countries that have always walked under someone.

They celebrated the centenary of independence recently.

From whom?

Be independent, but you are constantly looking back on the opinion of your overseas comrade.

What kind of independence is there?

The Balts themselves are not very independent.

They always wait and understand whose tune they need to play.

As for Russophobia at the everyday level, I have never encountered it in everyday life.

This is all politics.

- Aren't you afraid that your new edition might be treated the same as with Sputnik Estonia?

- I'm an adequate person, I understand everything.

Of course I'm afraid.

Laws and the Constitution do not work here.

Anything could happen.

But as Vladimir Putin once said at a press conference, answering my question about the situation with our editorial office, they are afraid of us for the truth.

It couldn't be better.

We speak the truth, which they (the authorities) do not like.

Therefore, it remains only to continue to fight for it.