Meduza, Russia's Independent News Media, Grateful To Still Exist Thanks To Cryptocurrency Donations

Meduza gets the stamp of a foreign agent from the Russian government. (photo: meduza.com screenshot)

JAKARTA - An independent Russian news company has raised more than US$250,000 (IDR 3.6 billion) in cryptocurrency donations from its supporters to continue reporting independent news under a barrage of Russian government propaganda and censorship.

Meduza, a Russian-language news site based in Latvia that claims to have reported on “the real Russia, today.” They have been asking for donations since April 2021 in United States dollars, euros, and cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), BNB, Tether (USDT), Monero (XMR), and Zcash (ZEC).

Since publishing its donation request, the news company has received approximately $250,000 in crypto donations through 146,000 individual transactions. About 93% of the total donation amount came in the form of 3.75 BTC for 116,954 US dollars and 49.9 ETH for 117,767 US dollars.

Meduza's financial troubles actually began in April 2021, after they and several other independent media outlets were branded by Russia's Ministry of Justice as "foreign agents," requiring the company to place a large-font warning in every Russian-language article informing its readers of the status of "foreign agent." The same warning should also appear on all ads, leading to the disappearance of almost all advertisers.

“As you can imagine, some companies will pay to promote their products under the warning that the content is “created by a foreign agency,” Meduza said in his post.

Being labeled as a foreign agent does not prevent readers in Russia from donating funds to the organization. However, as the company soon paved the way for contributors to make regulatory donations through their banks using payment processor Stripe and via crypto.

By March, however, Meduza found himself pinned down by Russian government censorship and the fallout from Western sanctions. Russian authorities blocked its website for "spreading unlawful information." Also, the main avenue for receiving donations from Russian supporters was blocked by the ban on the SWIFT network for Russian banks on February 26.

SWIFT is a global financial messaging network used by financial institutions to make international money transfers.

Meduza wrote on its donation website that financial restrictions had made it impossible for them to collect donations from their supporters in Russia.

Since February 25, the news organization and its journalists have been publishing daily updates on Russia's war against Ukraine, sharing images and stories about Ukrainian civilians affected by the war and other major events that were not reported by local Russian media.

“Millions of people in Russia now depend on our coverage,” wrote Meduza, noting that his journalists were forced to leave the country.

“Since the outbreak of this war, transferring money from Russia to Europe has been impossible. We lost 30,000 donors. Right now, we don't get any money from Russia at all," Meduza wrote.

Ivan Kolpakov, editor-in-chief of Meduza, told Bloomberg that the donation will help 25 of their journalists who have left the country resettle in Riga, Latvia, where the company's headquarters are located.

Meduza and his journalists are not the only unintentional victims of Russian sanctions. Months of media reports have shown that everyday Russians, students studying abroad, international students in Russia, and even the civilian population of the entire country have been severely affected by the sanctions Russia is facing.