Meet Connecticut’s managing editor of independent Russian news site Meduza
New Haven resident Kevin Rothrock’s life got a lot crazier on Feb. 24, the day Russia invaded Ukraine. Rothrock is managing editor of the Englishlanguage edition of Meduza, one of Russia’s leading online independent news websites. From his Westville home, the fluent-inRussian Rothrock chooses which Meduza articles to publish in the paper’s English site and heads a threeperson team that translates and posts them. He also writes a daily newsletter, tweets multiple times a day to his 100,000-plus followers and hosts a podcast called The Russia Guy.
Our sister publication, Connecticut Magazine interviewed him by phone in mid-April. [This interview has been edited for length and clarity.]
How did you become a Russia expert?
I have no Russian heritage or family background. I’m from California originally. My family thinks my Russia obsession is very weird.
I was born in 1982 and grew up watching a lot of Cold War movies and documentaries. Russia always seemed to me this fascinating place in my imagination. I had a friend from Moscow in high school, and he made me interested in this strange place called Russia.
I didn’t start learning Russian until I went to the University of California Santa Cruz. I started in and liked the people involved in it and I sort of stuck with it.
I did a program for about eight months in Russia. I went back for several summers. I got a master’s degree in history but decided being a historian wasn’t for me. I started part time for Meduza in 2014 and became the English-language managing editor in 2017. I’ve worked all that time from the United States. Your standard Moscow hand has put in far more time in country than me.
Tell us about Meduza.
The core team came from a popular website that still exists but is no longer independent. In the early days of the Ukraine war in 2014 [Russia invaded Crimea in 2014 and its proxies seized parts of eastern Ukraine where war has raged on and off ever since], the site published an interview with a link to a Ukrainian nationalist considered by the Russian government to have extremist views. The owners forced the editor to resign. In protest, the majority of the newsroom resigned.
A few months later, Meduza was born. The core newsroom was in Riga, Latvia. That turned out to be a prescient move because now to be independent you have to be outside Russia.
The site is a mix of original reporting and longform, explanatory journalism. There was also lighter news, but that’s been suspended until the war ends. We were keen to position ourselves as less opposition than independent media. We didn’t just focus on Putin but also on culture and other issues.
Meduza built a strong following. We had millions of views a day, a strong advertising base, 1 million followers each on Twitter and Telegram and a staff of about 100.
About a year ago, the Russian government declared us a “foreign agent.” Being a foreign agent doesn’t ban you, but it scared away virtually all our advertisers. We had to ask readers to pay, and about 30,000 did, keeping us afloat.
What happened to Meduza after the invasion?
We, like all independent media, were blocked. We had to pull our reporters out of the country. Through VPNs and social media we’ve managed to maintain about three-quarters of our readers. It varies, but we still get 1 to 2 million views a day. Being based in Latvia helped a lot. Unlike many independent outlets, we never suspended or closed down our operations.
Having your website banned by the censor doesn’t make a website illegal. It’s not illegal to visit Meduza inside Russia. It’s just difficult.
Our biggest challenge has been banking sanctions that cut us off from our Russian supporters. We have appealed to the Russian diaspora for funding, and it’s been pretty successful. If your readers want to support us, they can visit our funding page.
Why do you think Putin invaded Ukraine?
I didn’t think they would invade. I was in the camp that it was inconceivable. The idea of bombing Kyiv seemed absurd. I was very wrong on that.
Why did he do it? Just before the war he gave a very revealing national address. I thought he was going to declare war right then. In that speech it was about how Ukrainian statehood is fiction, an accidental creation of the Bolsheviks and Stalin. Ukrainian nationality doesn’t really exist. They have no right to call themselves a country. That really came through.
It’s very dodgy and dicey to try to analyze Putin.
How do you think this is going to end?
I’m not a military expert, but I see no quick end. Right now I think the Russians will try to conquer more of eastern Ukraine, the region they first tried to take over in 2014. The two big targets are Mariupol and Kharkiv. They will try to grab and consolidate whatever they can. The other possibility is that they will go back to Kyiv and attempt regime change again.
I don’t see a way out for Ukraine in terms of territorial integrity. It seems inevitable that they will have to say goodbye to Crimea and parts of eastern Ukraine.
I think it’s unrealistic that Ukraine will win.
A few experts think the Russian Federation could break up as a result of the war. Do you think that’s possible?
I think that’s wishful thinking. I see no evidence to back that up.