Official position/function in relation to the conflict

Pskov Province is a regional large-circulation newspaper published in Pskov. In 2014-2016, the newspaper made a great contribution to the search and publication of evidence of professional Russian military participation in hostilities on the side of separatists in Donbas. From 2000 to 2016, the newspaper’s publisher was the well-known opposition politician Lev Schlosberg.

The newspaper published a number of high-profile investigative articles shedding light on the participation of Russian military personnel in the armed conflict in Donbas. In 2014, its publisher Lev Schlosberg became a finalist for the Andrei Sakharov Prize for Journalism as a Deed for the newspaper’s investigations and independent position. In 2015, Pskov Province received the Gerd Bucerius International Freedom of Speech Prize.

In 2016, the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation recognized the NGO Svobodnoye Slovo, which is the founder and publisher of Pskov Province a “foreign agent.”

Interests/goals in the conflict region

Objective and comprehensive reporting about the armed conflict.

Actions regarding the conflict region

In August 2014, Pskov Province reported a secret funeral of contract soldiers of the 76th Guard Airborne Assault Division in Pskov who died under “unknown circumstances.” Comparing the available information with data from social networks, the reporters came to the conclusion that the paratroopers had died in the fighting in eastern Ukraine. This was one of the first serious indications that professional Russian military personnel is fighting on the side of the separatists in Donbas.

Subsequently, the newspaper published a whole series of investigative materials about the deaths of Pskov contract soldiers in Donbas and how the Russian Ministry of Defense is hiding this information.

Immediately after the publication, the authors of the article began to receive threats, the film crew of TV channel Rain, and Novaya Gazeta reporters who arrived at the cemetery were attacked. An attack was made on Lev Schlosberg, he was severely beaten. Other journalists also faced threats as soon as they began to deal with this topic.