Putin’s Crackdown on Dissent Inside Russia

The FRONTLINE Dispatch

GBH

News

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 1 December 2022

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the new documentary Putin’s War at Home, FRONTLINE tells the stories of Russian activists and journalists defying Russian President Vladimir Putin’s crackdown on dissent – from a young woman documenting protests and propaganda on TikTok, to a duo of reporters investigating the Ukraine war’s death toll among Russian soldiers.

Director Gesbeen Mohammad joins FRONTLINE’s executive producer and editor-in-chief, Raney Aronson-Rath, to discuss what it took to gather these stories — and what the documentary’s subjects risked by speaking out about the Ukraine war, including arrest and imprisonment.

“People were very, very afraid to speak to us,” Mohammad told FRONTLINE. “But I guess that's what makes all of our interviewees and contributors so unique in their braveness.”

Putin’s War at Home is now streaming on FRONTLINE’s website, the PBS Video App and FRONTLINE’s YouTube channel.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	There are hundreds of people out in the city today, and even more police.
0:05.0	There is a protest inside all of Russia against mobilization and war.
0:11.0	With footage from inside Russia, a new frontline documentary tells the stories of Russian citizens
0:18.0	who refuse to remain silent about the war in Ukraine.
0:22.0	We have at least 96 detained in St. Petersburg.
0:27.0	I do feel scared.
0:29.0	The film Putin's War at Home follows activists and journalists
0:33.0	as they risk arrests and imprisonment for their actions.
0:37.0	That includes one of the film's producers, Vasily Kolotilov, himself a Russian journalist.
0:43.0	We knew from the very beginning that they risks for other contributors
0:47.0	and all the team making this film are immense.
0:51.0	Kolotilov made Putin's War at Home with director Gesh Muhammad.
0:55.0	Gesh joins me today to talk about the challenges of getting this important story out of Russia.
1:01.0	I'm Leneer Ensign Roth, editor-in-chief and executive producer of Frontline,
1:05.0	and this is the Frontline Dispatch.
1:09.0	The Frontline Dispatch is made possible by the Abrams Foundation, committed to excellence in journalism
1:15.0	and by the Frontline Journalism Fund, with major support from John and Joanne Hagler.
1:20.0	Support for Frontline Dispatch comes from the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center.
1:24.0	Dedicated to providing compassionate care and cancer specialists who are experienced in the cancer you have.
1:29.0	When you hear the word cancer, their team is ready.
1:32.0	Learn more at massgeneral.org slash cancer.
1:35.0	Gesh, thank you so much for joining me on the Dispatch.
	...

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