New report on Russian media in exile: RSF calls for increased support amid unprecedented digital repression
Independent Russian media in exile are a vital line of defence against the Kremlin’s massive digital censorship project, which has an estimated budget of nearly 630 million euros, according to the latest report by The Fix and the JX Fund. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) urges European states, international donors, and tech giants to step up their support for these media outlets as they face unprecedented repression and major logistical, financial, and security challenges.
In 2024, the Kremlin rolled out AI-based censorship techniques, continued its fierce crackdown on independent journalism, intensified VPN blocks, hindered access to content on international platforms like YouTube and Telegram, and decided to invest over 660 million USD (nearly 630 million euros) over five years in a digital control infrastructure designed to block Russian citizens’ access to independent information. This amount is nearly 50 times bigger than the budgets of Russian media in exile, according to the latest report published by The Fix, a media think tank, and the JX Fund, a support fund for exiled journalism created by RSF in collaboration with the German foundations Rudolf Augstein and Schöpflin.
The Crucial Role of Exiled Outlets
“What Russia is building is not just a national censorship machine — it’s a laboratory for digital repression that seeks to become a model for other countries. Independent Russian media in exile are the last line of defence against the Kremlin’s extensive propaganda operation. Abandoning them as they face increasingly sophisticated tools of repression risks creating an unprecedented information blackout. RSF calls on European states to provide financial and logistical support, on international donors to strengthen their support, and on tech giants to stop yielding to the Kremlin’s pressure and ensure fair access to their platforms.
Russia tops the global rankings for the number of content removal requests submitted to international platforms like Google and TikTok; most of these requests were justified as “national security” concerns. Censored media outlets report on issues such as the extent of Russian casualties in the war in Ukraine, war crimes committed by Russian forces in occupied Ukraine, Russian intelligence operations, and Kremlin disinformation campaigns.
Innovative tools to bypass censorship
Despite increasing repression, more than a third of Russia’s population uses VPNs, making Russia the country with the largest number of VPN users, according to data compiled for the report. In addition to VPNs — and despite limited resources — the 66 exiled independent Russian media outlets that were surveyed for the report are finding innovative ways to reach audiences within Russia: magic links (shortened alternative links to articles), browser extensions, PDF copies of articles, “gamified” storytelling via online games, and more. These novel tactics are helping them grow their audience despite censorship, with a combined total of nearly 32 million visits to their websites in July 2024.
However, this remarkable resilience is undermined by the multiplying security, financial, and logistical challenges of exile. The transition has been costly and complex, especially for mid-sized news organisations. As detailed by the previous report by The Fix and the JX Fund in 2023, media outlets have become increasingly dependent on donations as their advertising revenue from Russia has nearly disappeared. Although the management of editorial and commercial operations improved in 2024, expenditures remain focused on journalists’ salaries at the expense of other essential roles critical to long-term sustainability.
RSF Support
RSF supports Russian journalists and media in exile through its assistance service and the JX Fund. The organisation also helps them bypass censorship via initiatives like the Collateral Freedom operation, which makes blocked sites accessible, and the Svoboda satellite package, which broadcasts independent Russian-language radio and TV channels. RSF also appeals to international platforms that comply with Russian censorship. Apple, for example, recently disabled access to podcasts from the BBC’s Russian service, the Echo of Moscow radio, and the Russian investigative media outlet The Insider. It also removed apps from three channels operated by the Russian branch of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) from the App Store.
