Liberal TV Station Dozhd Now Streams From Outside Russia, Criticizes Putin's Policies

JAKARTA - Russia's liberal independent TV station Dozhd (TV Rain) resumed broadcasting on Monday evening, July 18 from abroad after being forced to close its Moscow studio following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Dozhd, depicted in the 2021 film "Tango with Putin", was visited and praised in 2011 by then-President Dmitry Medvedev when he was just one year old, and was largely apolitical.

But like all independent Russian media, it has continued to be bullied since Vladimir Putin returned to the presidency in 2012.

As of last Monday, they had received EU broadcasting licenses and will work from studios in Latvia, France, and the Netherlands - as well as Georgia, where many Russians uncomfortable with war have moved to the country since February.

The station will also stream on YouTube, which is uncensored in Russia and likely the only way most people in Russia can view their broadcasts.

“Due to the repressive laws and military censorship adopted in Russia, we were forced to leave our homes. Now we are continuing our work from abroad," Dozhd said in a statement.

As Russia becomes more authoritarian, especially after the suppression of protests against the 2012 election results, a station that calls itself the "Optimistic Channel" feels it can no longer ignore politics.

In 2014, the Channel was removed from the broadcast network after conducting a poll in which respondents said the Soviet Union should have surrendered Leningrad to Hitler in 1941 instead of resisting a nearly 900-day Nazi siege. This is considered a subversion of the ideals of wartime resistance and an affirmation of Russian Values that Putin seeks to evoke.

In 2021, Dozhd was removed from the Kremlin press pool and labeled a "foreign agent". The designation forced him to add a disclaimer to all of his output, now limited to the internet, and impose a number of administrative obligations.

On March 1, Russia's communications watchdog announced that it was blocking Dozhd's broadcast, accusing it of spreading "deliberately false information about the actions of Russian military personnel" in Ukraine. The next day, Dozhd announced that his team had left Russia.