meduza

What does Meduza mean to readers who can’t safely support it themselves? Five people inside Russia wrote to tell you.

Source: Meduza

Every time we ask you to support Meduza, we receive not only donations but also dozens of messages through our ”Flower Power” project from readers in Russia. They ask people in other countries to donate on their behalf and explain why access to independent news matters so much to them. For people in Russia, this is the only safe way to support Meduza. When someone on the other side of the border responds and fulfills their request, it means a great deal to them. Here are five messages that no one has answered yet. You can change that. Please read them and respond if any speak to you.

We publish readers’ messages with minor edits. The text contains profanity; if that is unacceptable to you, please don’t read it. We screened all the letters for AI-generated content, but even the most thorough checks cannot fully guard against manipulation. Please bear that in mind.

🌺 Dark Purple Daisy

I’m probably the craziest character here, because in 2022 I fled the shelling in my hometown for the country that shattered my world. On one side of the border, I had already buried all my relatives and lost my mental stability; on the other was a family that needed me just as much as I needed them.

Now I’m dealing with a fractured sense of reality in Russia. I can barely convince even my husband of things that seem obvious, never mind my uncle, who served in the Soviet military. No one seems to support the war, and they see that everything around them is a fucking nightmare, but they still believe there are smart officials who will either save us or at least not get us killed.

Please support Meduza. Its podcasts and news are a window onto reality, helping me stay safe both physically and mentally. Knowledge is power.

Become Dark Purple Daisy’s friend

🌿 Light Green Viburnum

I was 13 when the war began. Of course, at that age, I couldn’t grasp the scale of the problem, but I read independent media, including Meduza. Now I’m 18, and it hurts to see how indifferent people are… Yeah, there’s a war. So what? They don’t care at all :(

I don’t think the elections will change anything. Most people are passive and either won’t vote or will vote for United Russia. So many people still offer their silent support. I’m glad Meduza makes objective information available. Without it, I might be just as silent as they are. But we cannot stay silent.

It’s upsetting. Sometimes it seems that Russians are simply beyond hope… It really hurts that sooner or later I’ll have to leave my own country. Emigration is very difficult because abroad, I’ll never feel at home or like I belong. Maybe things will eventually improve in Russia, but people who pose a danger to society will return from the war. And propaganda has created a great many homophobes, too.

Please donate to Meduza so it can keep going. I could donate myself, but it isn’t safe because I’m still in Russia.

Respond to Light Green Viburnum’s request

🍈 Celestine Olive

I live in one of the world’s largest and strangest countries. And my “great” country thinks it is better than everyone else, smarter than everyone else, and knows better than anyone what my fellow citizens and I should live and die for. It is profoundly mistaken. When I read Meduza, I know I’m not alone in thinking this. We’re ordinary people who, like you, thought in January 2022 that warnings of an impending war were disinformation. We’re now living through the fifth year of a reality in which people face criminal charges and prison sentences for calling for peace; in which the constitutional right to assemble is trampled under the pretense of protecting public health; and in which, every day, people who will never tell us anything again are transported in both directions.

For me, Meduza is a refuge — one of the fragments of a normal, humane world that I desperately don’t want to lose. Peace. Friendship. Chewing gum.

Let Celestine Olive feel a friend’s support

🪷 Cream-Pink Lotus

I want to speak to everyone who is hesitating. I know there are many of you. I’m one of you. For me and for you here abroad, a small donation — even a one-time donation — costs about as much as a pack of cigarettes, a movie ticket, or a bus ticket to a neighboring country. My conscience has been eating at me. I read Meduza every day. I have for years. And I finally realized why. The articles are well written. They’re interesting to read. They make you think (!) and draw conclusions. They help you make your case in discussions with narrow-minded people. Take that step at last. Help independent journalism. And you’ll understand why I finally did it, too.

Join Cream-Pink Lotus and help independent journalism

🌱 Dark Pink Lingonberry

Whoever is reading this, I’m begging you: please donate on my behalf.

I swear, as soon as I get out of Russia, I’ll sign up for every Meduza subscription and monthly donation I can. But right now, I’m a Russian woman with a police report filed against me. I used to post a lot, but I stopped because now I’m afraid to show up on social media at all. I’m afraid the Federal Security Service will remember me.

I plan to leave Russia in the spring of 2027. And I’m terrified I won’t manage to get out. I know it sounds paranoid, but I’m constantly waiting for a knock at my door. Or a buzz from the intercom.

Words can’t express how grateful I am to Meduza because, amid all this chaos, I can always open the news in the morning and understand what really happened. More than once, Meduza has kept me from losing my mind to sheer terror.

If you can donate on my behalf, I would be very grateful.

You’ll probably ask why I didn’t leave earlier. I spent four years burying my parents. First my mother was ill, and then she died under horrific circumstances. Then my father became seriously ill. My father was Ukrainian, by the way. What was happening made both of us sick at heart. He died in late 2025. He never lived to see Ukraine’s victory.

Please don’t let Meduza shut down. I’m begging you.

Fulfill Dark Pink Lingonberry’s request