Russian journalists in mourning after the death of Derk Sauer. “He freed Russian readers and journalists”

The death of Derk Sauer (1952 – 2025) on Thursday from the effects of a sailing accident, has immersed Russian independent journalists in deep mourning. Anyone who sought the name ‘Derk’ in Cyrillic letters on social media in recent days found a flood of musings and hymns. His sudden death lets many think about what he has meant for journalism in the country.

For the media that Sauer has founded since the fall of the Soviet Union, generations of Russian journalists were trained. They learned independent journalism companies, outside the media that had been purchased by Oligarchs. After The Moscow Times, aimed at foreigners staying in Russia, started that revolution with the newspaper Vedomosti in 1999. With the slogan: “This newspaper is for sale for Oligarchs – in the kiosk”.

“He brought his direct way of doing business to Russian media, where it went pretty well and is still going. He freed people, journalists and readers at the same time,” says Leonid Bershidsky via WhatsApp. He was less than thirty when he became the first editor -in -chief of Vedomosti.

Taking young, driven people, that was one of Sauer’s ways to get from the circuit of former KGB’ers and Communists that had long determined Russian journalism.

‘Just like Tsar Peter’

“Derk was very immediately, a bit sudden. Leaved a no-nonsense impression. I liked it immediately,” says Bershidsky. He places Sauer’s work in a long history: “Tsar Peter the Great went to the Netherlands to learn,” says Bershidsky. “Derk did a godfather.” Vedomosti means as much as ‘messages’ or ‘news’. “It was the name of the first Russian newspaper that was founded by Peter the Great. The name was a bit of a wink – we never told him that.”

Sauer was not concerned with such finerisms, he left them to the Russians themselves. He was the one who has two English -speaking competitors, The Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal So far that they each got five million dollars to start the new newspaper together. “Derk sold the first advertisements,” says Bershidsky.

Leonid Bershidsky only held his new position for two weeks when Sauer said he would fire him. “After I told him that his budget only offered room for thirteen employees and that I could not fill twelve pages,” says Leonid Bershidsky. “You didn’t have to tell Derk that something was not possible.”

But Bershidsky did not leave and Sauer did not return. “He gave second and third chances. He took risks, but he did that calmly and he accepted failure as something that belongs to life.”

Vedomosti became a sensation. Journalistic Mores and values such as independence and verification became a benchmark for many Russian journalists. After a year, the newspaper Quitte ran.

Alpha women

As a 22-year-old, Jelizaveta Osetinskaya, current editor-in-chief and founder of the independent news site The Bell, entered Vedomosti, in November 1999. “I just saw Sauer on the editors for the first time. The owner of the newspaper where I worked was an oligarch. It would have been a big deal if it had come to the editors.”

There were other independent media active in Russia, but Sauer made such journalism the core of a strong business model in Russia. “So many people thank their careers to the opportunities that Derk has given. He had a fantastic eye for talent,” says Osetinskaya, by telephone. In Russian capitalism, men were very dominant, “but Russia is a country of great women. Derk saw that and often gave them promotion; it was important for him if you were a little alpha and worked hard.”

Osetinskaya became editor -in -chief of Vedomosti, then at Forbesand followed Sauer to his next adventure: the Russian influential media group RBK, where she also became editor -in -chief in 2014. It turned out to be a final excess: the revolution on Maidanplein in Kyiv, the flight of the then President Janukovich from Ukraine and the annexation of the Krim marked a turning point for the freedom of the Russian press.

So many people thank their careers to the opportunities Derk has offered them

RBK went against it directly. The more than two million unique visitors a day made the journalistic platform of RBK a strategic and influential medium. Journalism was “completely ruined” for Sauer’s arrival, but together with him, Osoetinskaya introduced a whole new team of “tricky people” to improve journalism and reintroduce investigative journalism. “I had never entered into that adventure if Derk had not been at the helm. He had my full confidence.”

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Many conversations were held about how they could resist the increasing pressure. “The Kremlin wanted more, more and more control. Derk said: Liza, you have to charm them completely. That worked until it worked anymore. Nothing worked anymore. The Kremlin wanted total control. And that started with the media.” Foreign media property was forbidden. Sauer tried to work in the wings “as a secret boss,” says Osetinskaya. The experiment ended in 2016. After a publication by RBK about the Panama Papers, with which President Putin was associated, she was fired.

‘Every medium would collapse’

Step by step the free press was turned around. “The free media did not survive in Russia,” says Mikhail Fishman, presenter at TV Rain. This independent media channel was banned in 2022, just after the large -scale invasion of Ukraine of Russian television and internet. Fishman was live in the broadcast when it happened. A day later he left the country. “Every medium would collapse under pressure. But we survived as a community.”

In Moscow, Fishman never worked with Sauer, but he felt part of the revolution that Vedomosti has brought about. In 2017, Fishman worked at The Moscow Times when it was bought back By Sauer. He immediately decided to scrap the paper edition and continue with a trunk editor, so that Fishman lost his job.

But in 2022, looking for a new home after he had gone into exile, he suddenly received a phone call. “The owner of TV Rain called and asked what I thought of moving to Amsterdam.” Sauer had arranged that the editors of TV Rain and The Moscow Times could go to the Netherlands.

Zoom in

It was Sauer’s idea to turn Amsterdam a safe haven for Russian independent journalists in exile, says Fisjman. “He didn’t have to do this, he already had a home in the Netherlands,” says Fishman. “But he did. Now I am here because of Derk. My 7 -year -old daughter speaks Dutch because of Derk.”

The projects he brought to the Netherlands are not in danger, says son Pjotr Sauer. The media have been left in a very healthy state and we are confident that they can continue their work without him. “

In the Netherlands, Fishman often saw Sauer in the workplace. His enthusiasm met him. “He was about keeping independent journalism alive. He had an institutional influence on Russian journalism. This was similar to what he did in the nineties. He offered help when that was the most necessary.”

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