European sanctions targeting Russia following the invasion of Ukraine weighed heavily on the two media of influence of the Kremlin.
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On May 4, Sputnik France was discreetly placed in compulsory liquidation. The epilogue of a seven -year adventure for this media funded by the Kremlin. For the thirty employees, the situation quickly changed after the announcement of the European Union sanctions. “Two days later, Sputnik ceased to publish content,” says Colin Gérard, a geopolitics researcher specializing in Russia, who spotted the final bankruptcy of the company.
For a fortnight, in March, some editors had been looking for rescue roads. They even thought of creating a Telegram channel, called a hard time. “But we were made to understand that it was going to stop,” said a former journalist. “It is the SWIFT system [the international interbank system, from which Russian banks are excluded in early March], which has banared us,” said another. At the same time, employees perceived as prorussians receive death threats.
“Management advised us to stay with us. There was no starting pot,” continues the same source. Wages are poured in March, but, as early as April, the boxes are empty, and the AGS, the wage guarantee system, take over. The company closes its doors, without neither the president of Sputnik France, Vladimir Morozov, nor its director, Natalia Novikova, providing the slightest explanation.
difference in treatment
The situation contrasts with that of its great competitor, RT France, which still had 175 employees at the start of the war in late February. Three months after the sanctions, the other media funded by the Russian state, which, in addition to a website, supervised a television channel, still maintains a semblance of activity. The contents that journalists still produce are only visible outside the European Union, or through a virtual private network (VPN).
How RT France, whose all sources of income have been cut, still manages to repatriate the funds necessary for its activity? Internally, all ask themselves the question. “One wonders by which country transits the money,” wonders a journalist, who recalls that in the spring, one of the transfers had been blocked in Germany, before being sent back to Russia. “They go through a non -sanctioned bank,” said a good connoisseur of the company. For her part, a chain spokesperson ensures that “she is funded regularly and usual”.
In the meantime, the difference in treatment with Russia of its two media of influence raises questions. “Was there an absence of zeal to save the shop? Surely,” deduces a former Sputnik. “RT France is the more respectable flagship. Sputnik, it is the scratch -to -scratch site”, analyzes an employee of RT France, evoking the corrosive content that Sputnik used to produce. RT France now hopes to relaunch a news at the start of the school year, but would find it difficult to find the living forces to make it.