Russia intensifies assault as thousands flee Ukraine
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A prominent Russian journalist quit her state-TV job after condemning Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, raising questions about whether she could be targeted by the Kremlin over the decision.
The Russian version of Russia Today, a state-run media operation also known as RT, lost its editor-in-chief on Tuesday when Maria Baronova resigned after publicly condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to Znak.com.
RT editor-in-chief on Tuesday Maria Baronova resigned after publicly condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to Znak.com. (Photo by Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images) (Photo by Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images)
"If I chose to be with Russia, this does not mean that I should walk in a totalitarian system, be silent or, for example, rejoice that the regime, which I do not want for my country, is being exported somewhere else," Baronova wrote last week on her Telegram channel, Znak.com reported. "And this regime will finally turn our life into one endless hell. What's there. Already turned."
A few days after that post, Baronova left the state-run network and told Znak.com that she had "nothing else to talk about."
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Intelligence expert and national security commentator Rebekah Koffler told Fox News Digital she doesn’t believe the Russian president will target Baronova personally because she’s a relatively "small fish" compared to someone like opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
"Putin actually dispatched assassins to target Navalny and to eliminate him," Koffler said, adding that pro-Russian groups that are loyal to Putin could attack his enemies without an official order from the Kremlin.
"That sort of thing I don’t rule out, like random attacks," Koffler said. "The people on whom [Putin] orders such things, the threshold is pretty high."
Koffler, the author of "Putin's Playbook: Russia's Secret Plan to Defeat America," said the Kremlin typically looks to assassinate people like Navalny or Sergei Skripal, a former Russian military officer who betrayed Putin by working with British intelligence.
"The Russians tried to poison him with a military-grade nerve agent," Koffler said. "These are the levels of opposition in Putin's mind that would call for such things."
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Fox News Digital could not find any examples of Putin being directly linked to the murder of a journalist. However, 38 journalists have been murdered in Russia since 1992; 81 percent of those cases have not been solved, and seven journalists have gone missing in Russia and have not been found, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
At least five journalists have been arrested for their coverage of the invasion of Ukraine, recent reports show.
Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an intense assault on Ukraine. (Yuri Kochetkov/Pool)
In 2018, the Associated Press published a report outlining a list of reporters who had been critical of the Russian government and wound up killed or beaten.
"In most cases, their attackers walked free," the AP reported at the time.
Putin put an international spotlight on Russia last week by invading Ukraine with an assault that has targeted everyone from civilians to women, children and students.
Baronova’s resignation signals "that at least some people in the Russian media understand that Putin has gone too far and are actually willing to protest," Koffler said, but she doesn’t expect it to force any change.
"Is it going to change Putin's behavior? Absolutely not," Koffler said. "Is it going to lead to a mass exodus from Russia today? No."
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"It's good to see, you know, individual people doing that. But Russian media in general is controlled either directly or implicitly by the Russian government. There's virtually no independent media in the way that we in the U.S. understand independent media rights," Koffler added. "Some of the media outlets are directly like straightforward mouthpieces of the Russian government and the Kremlin."
Znak.com is not a propaganda outlet and the report about Baronova’s resignation can be taken seriously, but it’s not as critical of Putin as Dozhd’ TV, which was designated as a "foreign agent" because it was hard on the Kremlin, Koffler noted.
"This woman is brave, and believe me, it’s not easy to be this brave because she may not find another job … the Russian government is very oppressive in terms of the media and they can come after her," she said.
Ukrainian servicemen stand by a destroyed house near the frontline village of Krymske, Luhansk region, in eastern Ukraine, Saturday, Feb. 19, 2022. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda) (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
Roskomnadzor, Russia’s federal body responsible for overseeing media, has urged all news outlets to only use "trustworthy sources" when it comes to reporting on the invasion of Ukraine, Koffler said.
"What they mean by that is Russian government sources," Koffler said. "I’m certain that if somebody does not obey this order, they will be blocked."
Dozhd’ TV and Ekho Moskvy are two outlets that were banned on some platforms for not cooperating, she said.
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Perhaps Barona's resignation was inevitable. A "onetime Russian opposition activist took a job at the Kremlin-run RT television channel," irking former colleagues and fellow Putin oppositionists, The Moscow Times reported in 2019.
The article was about Baronova.
The now-former RT editor-in-chief did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
Fox News' Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report