Prague — The list of sacrifices that Alesya Marokhovskaya has made to keep reporting on Russia from exile runs long: her home, her country, family, friends, culture, safety.

This month alone, Russian authorities searched the home of the journalist’s parents in the eastern port town of Magadan and opened a criminal case against Marokhovskaya for violating Russia’s foreign agent law.

When she spoke with VOA in Prague this fall, Marokhovskaya searched for words to explain why the sacrifices are worth it. Eventually, she settled on the Russian people.

“They’re poisoning Russians,” she said, explaining how she views Kremlin propaganda. “Information in our world is one of the most important things, and I am completely against manipulating people’s minds.”

As editor-in-chief of the exiled Russian investigative outlet IStories, breaking through propaganda to bring ordinary Russians the truth is Marokhovskaya’s core focus. But in doing so, Marokhovskaya and her team face legal threats and surveillance, even while based in Prague.

Marokhovskaya had not planned to leave Russia, even when Moscow declared the journalist a so-called foreign agent in 2021.

Instead, the reporter followed the strict rules that accompany the designation. For months, she labeled all of her social media posts — even ones that were photos of her dog — as the work of a so-called foreign agent, and she submitted financial reports to the Justice Ministry.

“It was really humiliating,” Marokhovskaya said. But she followed the rules because she wanted to keep reporting from inside Russia.

“For me, it was important to stay in Russia as long as I could. Because I was thinking there is no way to be a Russian journalist not inside Russia,” Marokhovskaya said.

But when Russia invaded Ukraine, Marokhovskaya said it became clear that Moscow would ramp up its persecution of independent journalists. Soon after, she and many of her colleagues at IStories fled for the Czech capital of Prague.

At the time, Marokhovskaya worried the relationship between IStories and its primary audience inside Russia wouldn’t survive the distance.

“It was our fear to become media for immigrants. We want to be media for Russians [inside Russia] in the first place,” Marokhovskaya said. But IStories survived. “I still have this fear, but now I see we can work in such circumstances.”

Marokhovskaya has worked for IStories, or “Important Stories,” since it was founded in 2020. In September, at the age of 29, she became the outlet’s editor-in-chief. She took over the role from IStories founder Roman Anin, who is now the publisher.

A former Novaya Gazeta reporter, Anin says he never expected something as extreme as the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but he predicted reporters would eventually have to leave because of Moscow’s rising repression.

“It was obvious that at some point, they will come after us as well,” Anin said.

To Anin, a focus on collaborative journalism is one of the things that makes IStories distinct. The outlet also prioritizes publishing investigations and exclusive stories instead of daily news that other outlets are covering.

“The main job of reporters is actually to find the truth, not to republish it,” Anin said.

Russia has labeled IStories as a foreign agent and an undesirable organization. The latter exposes its staffers, sources and donors to potential fines, criminal charges and jail time.

That harassment shows how impactful IStories’ work has been, according to Karol Luczka, who covers Eastern Europe at the International Press Institute in Vienna.

“Investigative journalism definitely is the kind of journalism which angers political decision-makers the most,” he said.

As the outlet’s new top editor, Marokhovskaya is tasked with leading what has become one of the most prominent exiled investigative Russian news outlets at a time when the stakes are especially high, she said.

With the third anniversary of the Russia-Ukraine war looming, Kremlin-backed harassment against exiled journalists posing a daily threat, and Russia’s future remaining uncertain, Marokhovskaya says their work is all the more important.

Among her priorities is figuring out how to maintain the connection between IStories and its audience inside Russia — and, ideally, how to grow that audience.

“When you are living in Russia, you are surrounded by propaganda,” she said. “Lots of people in Russia, they need the truth.”

IStories doesn’t have much of a problem reaching people inside Russia who already oppose President Vladimir Putin and his war. Marokhovskaya wants to turn her focus to those who aren’t necessarily pro- or anti-Putin but lie somewhere in the ambivalent middle.

“These people are of interest to us. It’s [a] potential audience,” Marokhovskaya said.

Part of that strategy is talking to people in a way that doesn’t isolate them, says Artem, the head of the IStories video department.

“We don’t say to them that you’re idiots, that you’re war criminals,” Artem said. “We just present real life in Russia as it is. We’re talking to real people. We’re talking about their problems. We’re always trying to find something that’s interesting to just ordinary people.”

A former journalist with Russian state-run media, Artem requested to be identified by only his first name for security reasons.

Video is a primary focus at IStories. The site publishes on YouTube, where IStories has nearly 720,000 subscribers, and where most of its videos attract around 1 million views.

In August, Russian authorities appeared to begin throttling YouTube loading speeds in an apparent attempt to limit access. Artem admitted he’s concerned about how that will affect IStories.

The YouTube channel and videos have made an impact. A 2022 documentary that featured a Russian soldier confessing to killing a Ukrainian civilian has more than 2.5 million views.

It also became the center of a lawsuit in Russia.

The documentary’s lead reporter — Ekaterina Fomina, who now works at TV Rain — and IStories founder Anin are accused of spreading what the Kremlin views as false information about the Russian military. The pair are being tried in absentia and reject the charges.

That lawsuit underscores the Moscow-backed threats facing exiled Russian journalists in a process known as transnational repression. Legal harassment — or “lawfare” — is common. Surveillance, hacking and even suspected poisonings have also been documented.

Over the course of several months last year, threatening messages were directed at Marokhovskaya and her colleague that suggested they were being surveilled.

“I’m physically in danger here. I put my family in potential danger,” Marokhovskaya said. “It’s a big sacrifice.”

Russia’s Prague embassy and foreign ministry did not reply to VOA’s requests for comment.

With threats high, many of the outlet’s staffers work anonymously.

“It’s a pity, but it’s part of our work now,” Artem said. “We’re fighting with criminals in the Kremlin, and they don’t follow rules. They just do what they want, and we’ll do the same,” he added.

The personal cost of that work is high. But, said Anin, “It’s so important in these historical moments to preserve the truth about what was really going on in the country, to preserve the truth about the crimes of Putin’s regime.”

And for Marokhovskaya, it’s comforting to know that she’s doing the right thing for her country.

“It’s really simple to me,” she said. “I’m a patriot for my country, and the Russian government — they’re not.”
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