'Stranger things have happened' Journalists literally cut an article out of their newspaper about a Russian soldier fighting in Ukraine

In early April, the newspaper Novaya Buryatia, a regional publication in Russia’s south-central Siberia, published an article on its website about the Buryat soldier, a member of the Russian military who was wounded in Ukraine. His interview had been published in Russia a month before. The publication in Novaya Buryatia got a lot of attention from readers, who started a heated argument in the “comments” section on the website. Wishing to avoid being drawn into in an “information war,” the editors decided to delete the article not only from the website, but also from the already-printed 50 thousand copies of the newspaper. The editing was carried out using scissors, and the article was literally cut out from every one of the 50 thousand printed copies. It took the journalists 72 hours to complete the task. Timur Dugarzhapov, the acting chief editor of Novaya Buryatia, spoke to Radio Liberty Russia and explained why he does not think the incident can be classified as censorship, and how the article stirred up a controversy in “quiet and calm” Buryatia region.

In the article published by Novaya Buryatia, titled “Buryat tank driver from Debaltseve still in critical condition,” appeared online on the morning of April 3. The article quoted the mother of the tank driver, who explained that her son Dorzhi Batomunkuyev, a contract soldier with the Russian army, did not get any aide from the government and is still in critical condition after sustaining injuries. She also refuted some of the facts stated in her son’s interview with Novaya Gazeta a month before, and said that Batomunkuyev never spoke to journalists. The article has been deleted from the website, but the cached version of the page can still be accessed.

Timur Dugarzhapov , the editor of Novaya Buryatia, does not see anything out of the ordinary in the deletion of the article about the contract soldier who, according to Novaya Gazeta, had been fighting on the side of the rebels in the separatist eastern territories of Ukraine. The editor says that the process of cutting an article out from printed papers by hand is “an amusing story” and that the media are making a big deal out of “literally nothing.” Dugarzhapov explained that the article seemed perfectly ordinary to him at first, but then he began to doubt it.

The heated debates sparked by the article scared the editors of the paper. The chief editor explained that this was unusual for Buryatia, which is such a “quiet and calm” region. Dugarzhapov said the comments made him realize that his newspaper had entered the waters of an “intense information confrontation,” something the editorial board had not meant to do. There was not outside pressure to take down the publication, he said.

“We actually wanted to avoid this kind of situation. And I think we did avoid it. What’s happening now, this discussion that apparently someone forced us to do it, it’s all nonsense. This was our joint decision, made by the editorial board. Of course, this is a unique situation in my experience, but what can you do, stranger things have happened.”