Ирина Малкова, Петр Мироненко

After the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the country reshaped its global position. While the Russian press freedom is at an all-time low, there are still some islands of independent journalism. Among them are Irina (Ira) Malkova and Peter Mironenko. Together with the economic journalist Lisa Osetinskaya they founded “The Bell”, one of the leading self-sufficient media outlets in Russia. It was founded after Ira, Lisa and Peter were dismissed from Russia’s largest economic news website under Kremlin pressure in 2016. The Bell was their answer to pursue an honest outlet, focused on in-depth reporting on Russia’s financial and political affairs.

Now working in exile and labeled as foreign agents, Malkova and Mironenko remain committed to their mission. In this interview, they share insights about their work and the evolving dynamics of Russian politics and economics.

Tell us more about The Bell, what is the main mission, and how did you come up with starting  your own news portal?

Peter: Throughout our careers, we have been working as reporters first, then as editors at major Russian daily newspapers mostly. We met in 2015 at RosBiznesKonsalting (RBC). RBC was (and still is) the biggest online news website with an economic focus in Russia. Ira, me, and our partner Lisa Osetinskaya, were working there. 

Then the Russian authorities started tightening their control over online media. In 2016, the owner of RBC – the  billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov- fired our team. It was a private owner who was influenced by the Kremlin. At that moment, the authorities realised that they really needed to control online publishing, because RBC was becoming the most important news media in Russia. Our online news outlet could no longer function independently . 

Ira: At RBC, we published a lot of articles about the Kremlin that were politically sensitive. After the publications about the Russian troops in Crimea, the Kremlin took notice of us. We conducted several investigations into what Russian shadow military forces were doing in Crimea and in the east of Ukraine.

Peter: In May 2016, the situation came to a head. As a result of a request from the Kremlin, RBC owner Prokhorov fired our colleague, the RBC Newspaper editor-in-chief Maxim Solyus. We understood that we could not continue our work while accepting even partial censorship from the government. All of our team members, around 25 to 30 journalists, decided to quit. That was the moment we understood it was no longer possible in Russia to be part of a large media organisation and sustain editorial freedom.

Ira, could you elaborate on the motivations behind establishing your own media organisation?

Ira: First, Peter, Lisa, and I, along with several more journalists, talked to each other  once a week to figure out what to do next. We realised that we want to go on working for an audience, for the people who are in charge of something in Russia. Our new goal was to pursue honest media, to inform the audience what is really going on in the economy and how the Kremlin is trying to influence all these spheres in Russia. At this point, the only way to guarantee freedom from censorship, was to create our own publication. With our own media organisation, we don’t have censorship. 

But of course, we couldn’t have imagined that in seven years, we would be the last and only Russian media company that can cover the economy without any influence. This was the birth of the Bell. In the beginning, we had almost no journalists. Our first editorial team consisted of Peter, two reporters, and me. For the first six months, we worked at Peters apartment.

In launching your own media organisation, did you find yourself needing to develop new skills or adapt in unexpected ways? What were the most valuable lessons you learned in the process of running this project?

Ira: It is good to be agile. You have to communicate with a lot of people. If you don’t have enough financial resources, you have to search for people who can work for you, almost for nothing. I had to learn how to be editor-in-chief. It was a big challenge to make the leading decisions. 

We had to think about how to make money too, because we were too small for commercial means. We founded a “private club” for our audience. For example, we invited famous people like politicians, economists or businessmen and sold tickets for these events. First, we interviewed them, and afterwards our audience could ask them their questions. This idea turned out well, so all the big media outlets started similar events after our success. It was amusing to see what happens when you just try to invent something to survive, and major players copy you.

Peter: From the beginning, we understood, to compete with bigger publications, we need to find a gap. When big media covers economic issues, they might have better sources and the articles are more profound. But their articles were very difficult to read for ordinary people. That could be our advantage. We started to write our articles in a more accessible way.

Also, we found a niche with reaching our audience. One of our main examples was Axios, an US-American news portal, which began to distribute their articles via newsletter. So we did the same. What seemed strange at first, turned out very well. People are used to receiving useful information via email, and as long as a person gives you their email address, they are already a bit more loyal than an average reader. So we cultivated a loyal audience.  Later, it turned out that this form of publication can help us deliver our product to the audience, as the authorities started blocking access to independent information to the readers based in Russia. Our website has been blocked in Russia since 2022, but email is virtually impossible to block.

Ira: With the recent halt to US foreign aid and USAID under Trump, many independent media outlets and NGOs in countries like Russia are in a financial crisis. A lot of  Russian media institutions rely on foreign support. “The Bell” understood that the only ones who can support us are our audience. That’s why we decided to implement a paywall for our newsletters. We’ve found out readers are ready to pay for information, which is great because we feel much more secure. Nevertheless, our socially significant investigations and part of our analysis are available without a paywall.

Peter: Due to unpredictability, we have to rely on ourselves as much as possible. 

With growing discussion about Washington brokering a peace deal, The Bell reported that a Kremlin-connected source sees it as “possible but with caveats’’. Why is this development significant for the international community?

Peter: We see that Vladimir Putin is sure that he’s winning. And, to be fair, he has quite a lot of grounds for this opinion, because militarily he is obviously in a better position than the Ukrainians right now. He has the advantage of all this chaos that is being constantly created by Donald Trump, leading to a political crisis in a lot of European countries.

He will be asking for a lot in these negotiations. I can’t imagine conditions that will be acceptable for Ukraine, so it’s really hard to envision a good peace deal. Any security guarantee that would be a real guarantee should imply that the countries giving this guarantee are ready to go to war if the ceasefire is broken. As far as I understand, nobody is really sure if the European countries or the US are ready for this.*

Moscow, 6 July 2025 – President Vladimir Putin attends an exhibition at the Russia National Centre, highlighting three years of the Russian Popular Front’s efforts during the Everything for Victory! forum.

picture alliance/dpa/TASS | Artyom Geodakyan

How is Russia’s current economic situation shaping public sentiment, and what are its broader global implications?

Peter: Putin could be erratic in international politics and politics overall, but he’s very smart in terms of the economy. He has always known that Russia needs to have a market economy. If we had a state-run economy like back in the Soviet Union, it would never have adapted to the sanctions as quickly as the Russian market economy has. He has many efficient officials who manage the economy effectively and are not subordinate to the military. These capable economic authorities  have Putin’s trust, they can voice their opinions against the military lobby. Especially in a wartime economy, where the military will argue for increased funding for military production, often at the expense of other sectors. 

The second point is that many people in Russia are indeed living better. Their incomes haven’t dropped. Yes, prices are increasing, but their incomes are rising faster. Their personal circumstances are improving, notwithstanding the fact that their country is perpetrating violence against innocent people. However, the economy is gradually becoming disbalanced. Although it currently appears to be functioning well, the inflation stands at 10%, and the central bank rate is at 21%.** This is exceptionally high for Russia. If an external crisis occurs, the economy could falter and collapse, leaving us with fewer resources to endure such a situation.

Many experts anticipated that Western sanctions would push the Russian economy into a deep crisis. However, this prediction has not fully materialised. Do you believe Putin was prepared for the economic consequences? What is your long-term forecast?

Ira: He didn’t expect that this war would last for three years. But he did expect the sanctions, and many economists predicted that the sanctions would be severe. However, the western Countries may not have anticipated that Russia would receive significant support from China, India, and Turkey. 

Another expectation among major economists was that the chaos in the Russian economy would  lead to people in Russia withdrawing all their money from bank accounts, triggering a banking crisis. Those expectations did not materialise because of the expertise of our financial and economic authorities, who are indeed professionals.

Peter: On the one hand, since 2014, Putin has been slowly drifting away from the West, announcing a pivot to the East. He began selling natural resources to China rather than to European countries. But his financial and economic officers were largely against it. A good example is Gazprom, the natural gas monopoly. While Russia was selling natural gas to Europe, they could charge three times as much as they are charging  China for natural resources right now. Because China knows Russia has limited options and can dictate the terms.

Gazprom is in a crisis; it posted a financial loss for the first time in 25 years last year. This company, once a source of national pride and a champion of the financial market, was seen as a safe investment for private investors. Now, it is in total ruin. While adaptation is occurring and allowing Putin to finance the war, it is surely leading to a gradual deterioration of the overall economy.

Kolomna, Moscow Region – 27 July 2024 – View from a car window showing a Gazpromneft gas station on the Novoryazanskoye Highway.

picture alliance / Picvario | Edgar Breshchanov

The Bell has been added to the foreign agent list. Could you explain, in the simplest terms, what the foreign agent’s law is? How does it affect your work and your ability to operate in Russia?

Ira: They label you as an enemy of the state, and the main consequence is that you just can’t earn money at home anymore. It doesn’t matter if you are an enterprise or just a regular person, both can be labelled as a foreign agent. What used to be just a label became prohibition. Other organisations and media are not allowed to collaborate with us.

There are many difficult examples. I’m sure that if I were still based in Russia, no one would hire me. There are many small things, but indeed, they try to do everything possible to prevent you from making money and surviving in this country. No one can disseminate the information you provide. They are trying to block you as a media organisation. It is indeed a clever tactic. If no one supports you abroad, you just can’t continue doing what you do.

Peter: The status has developed over time because, at the beginning, it was just a label. It had no practical consequences; you simply had to label yourself as a foreign agent on social networks and in publications. As a result, no one won’t cooperate with you just in case they might get hurt themselves. It wasn’t enforced, but people simply wouldn’t do it.

Nobody can advertise anything in foreign agent media. Since late last year, foreign agents are not allowed to receive income from selling their real estate or apartments. And if they sell it, the money goes to a special bank account, which is blocked. The agent can only access the money, if they are removed from the list, which is impossible to do. The main goal is to push people out of the country.

Ira: And there are no strict criteria to label you as a foreign agent. For example, you have to receive some money from abroad, even if you have a small channel on YouTube, which pays you 50€ a month – that would be enough. The other reason could be  that you engage in political activities or something like that. There are no rules. If they want you to be classified as a foreign agent, they will find a reason for it 

To end on a positive note, what achievement at The Bell are you most proud of? What keeps you motivated to continue, and what moments have reassured you that launching this project was the right decision?

Ira: First of all, I think that we are really lucky that seven years ago we decided to start all this. Because as I mentioned, I’m in exile, I can’t go home. It seemed to me like a disaster because I’m a journalist; unfortunately, I don’t have any other skills. Could I  still be useful  to someone? 

But after a year of the war, we understood that we are still useful and our audience is still here. They do read us and say thank you regularly, because they don’t have any other place to go to understand what is going on. We help them to carry on. 

Peter: I think that the most important question was: why would anyone need us after what began in 2022 and after all what has happened? Having found the answers to this question is the most crucial thing. And I know that we have a lot of readers in Ukraine too. That’s a good thing about distributing your media as an email. You know your readers very well. I can just open my database of hundreds of thousand emails and browse through it. I know that people in Ukraine are reading us, and they do need us for real information about Russia, and they won’t get the illusions that any propaganda from the north sides wants to create. There are lots of illusions on both sides. We see our goal as helping people avoid those and live in the real world where the Russian economy is not prospering and Russia is not thriving. But, at the same time, it’s not crumbling tomorrow. Living in the real world is a good goal and a good mission, and I am happy to follow it.

* The interview was conducted in April 2025.

** State in April 2025

Interview conducted by Tamara Svanidze and edited by Jan Möllers, interns at the ECPMF Practical Support Programme.

The views and opinions expressed are those of the interviewed person and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the organisation. Any content provided is for informational purposes only and should not be interpreted as representing the views of the organisation.