Ivan Kolpakov is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Meduza — the largest remaining independent Russian news outlet published in both Russian and English. It continues to reach millions of people inside Russia despite the project’s newsroom having to operate from exile for the last nine years. In April 2021, Russian authorities designated Meduza as a “foreign agent” in an attempt to knock out its advertising income, and weeks after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the government began blocking Meduza’s website outright. Finally, in January 2023, the Kremlin banned Meduza completely, declaring the outlet an illegal “undesirable organization". These actions were made to destroy the newsroom, but Meduza keeps resisting. Meduza also managed to retain the majority of the publication's audience due to the diverse and technologically advanced infrastructure.

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