This week, a group of men met Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin. They spoke for two hours, on camera, and the Russian president used the occasion to talk “frankly” about the country’s war against Ukraine. Mostly dressed in black, the men around the room, many with unkempt beards, wore baseball caps and polo shirts – outfits that seemed to suggest a moment of ‘unity’ between the Russian leader and his people at war.
These men are Russia’s war correspondents, and they are in charge of the day-to-day reporting of the country’s year-long war against Ukraine online. Many work for Russian state media, others represent their own micro-media run on Telegram channels. But what unites them is their millions of followers, and the power they have in directing the feelings of those Russian citizens who actively support the war on Ukraine.
Today, the pro-war news agenda for those who keenly follow the invasion, often referred to as the ‘Z agenda’, is shaped by dozens of Telegram channels, which constantly report on the twists and turns of Russia’s war, Ukraine’s resistance, and the shadowy conflicts between the Russian Ministry of Defence and private commanders like Evgeny Prigozhin.
