Like many Western journalists, NOS correspondent Iris de Graaf also left Moscow when Russia started its bloody war in Ukraine at the end of February. From that moment on, Dutch television viewers had to rely mainly on experts in the West for reporting on Russia – and the way in which the population there is informed by the Kremlin about the ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine.
De Graaf had to provide her reporting about Russia from Hilversum. By switching during the presenter’s conversation to De Graaf, who was secluded in another room in the NOS studio, it woke up NOS Journal the suggestion that the correspondent on the spotor at least far away. A more often used, somewhat shabby and transparent way to disguise the sometimes unavoidable absence on the site.
That masquerade is no longer necessary, now that De Graaf has returned to her post in Moscow since mid-June. Good news for everyone who, despite the limitations of censorship in Russia, still wants to hear from ordinary Russians what they think and what they think about sanctions, NATO and Ukraine. The correspondent gives them a voice.
For Monday’s broadcast, De Graaf traveled to Kaliningrad, the western Russian exclave that can only be reached from the motherland by train through Lithuanian territory. Such a strategically located city about which a lot of thunder can still arise in this east-west conflict, as a layman feels by your water. De Graaf interviewed the owner of the largest concrete factory, who already saw his company almost go bankrupt due to the sanctions that the European Union has imposed on Russia. Lithuania does not allow cement to pass through as a result of the sanctions and the production of concrete has come to a standstill.
I expected a lament about Western hostility and a eulogy of Russian fortitude, until the interview took a surprising turn. Russians regard the western trade blockade as a provocation, De Graaf gave a small push. Wrongly, the director replied: ‘The Russian government has broken all norms and values. It pains me that I am a citizen of a country that violates all international rules. Until now, Europe has not done so. Sanctions are sanctions.’
And more frankness followed: ‘I’m worried about my family, my children. And my staff sees their future being ruined. But in the end it’s just money we lose. It’s so much worse that grenades and rockets are hitting while we’re standing here talking. That children and peaceful civilians are dying.’ The man was wearing a floral shirt, the only cheerful touch in the gray environment of gravel, grit and electricity pylons.
The news gave De Graaf’s item a modest spot, behind the din of the farmer’s campaigns. But it has been seen: the unadulterated civic courage of an ordinary Russian.