Yelena Tregubova

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Yelena Viktorovna Tregubova (Russian: Елена Викторовна Трегубова) (born May 24, 1973) is a Russian journalist, a critic of the president Vladimir Putin and his environment.

1 Biography
2 Conflict with Kremlin administration
3 The Tales of a Kremlin Digger
4 Publications Abroad
5 Political Asylum
6 Bibliography
7 Notes
8 External links

[edit] Biography

Tregubova studied journalism at Moscow State University in the 1990s. She started her career as a journalist with the newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta. Between 1997 and 2001 Tregubova was a member of the Kremlin press pool, reporting for the independent Moscow dailies Kommersant, Izvestia, and Russky Telegraf. The members of this "Kremlin Pool" are reporters who cover the work of Russian presidents (Boris Yeltsin and later Vladimir Putin) for television and major newspapers. During this time she interviewed many top members of Kremlin's administration, including Vladimir Putin and Alexander Voloshin, and Anatoliy Chubais.

[edit] Conflict with Kremlin administration

Tregubova's reporting often irritated Kremlin administration, which resulted in sanctions. Alexey Gromov, a press-secretary of Putin, often did not allow her to visit official briefings, where all other correspondents were present. According to her book, Gromov said that was a directive of Putin ^[1], and Putin was especially furious when she asked him about his relations with Boris Berezovsky who started criticizing Putin's "Power vertical" in May 2000 ^[1]. She described her conversation with Gromov when he criticized her newspaper "Kommersant" for reprinting negative materials about Putin's policies from Western newspapers. He asked her^[1]: "Are you going to blame Putin of stiffing independent media when we start the dekulakization of Berezovsky?"

In the end of 2000, Tregubova was replaced in the Kremlin press pool by another correspondent. Editor-in chief of her newspaper Andrey Vasiliev gave up to the pressure from Kremlin. According to The Tales of a Kremlin digger, he said to her^[2]: "I am not only a journalist, but also a manager... They call me after every your publication, make a scandal, and demand your removal. I object: "But your disapproval of Tregubova only means she is a great political journalist"... They do not want to read any politics about themselves!". He later described her work as "war with Kremlin administration", the war that "she enjoyed". She "could be uncivil, I am not afraid of that name, with Gromov himself", he said. According to Vasilev, her materials were of insufficient quality ^[3]^[4].

[edit] The Tales of a Kremlin Digger

Her best-seller, The Tales of a Kremlin Digger, published in October 2003 describes her experiences as a Kremlin correspondent and criticizes the customs of the Russian political elite. In particular she criticizes the Putin administration for state control of the media. Tregubova condemns Putin’s regime for its authoritarian tendencies and attacks on free speech and censorship. Some critics noted that her judgement about Russian politicians is subjective, and the book is highly opinionated.^[5]

"The Tales of a Kremlin Digger" annoyed the Kremlin. After the book appeared, Tregubova lost her job as a correspondent for Kommersant. In November 2003, an interview with her was pulled from broadcast by NTV - a channel once renowned for its critical reporting. The segment was yanked after it had already aired in Eastern time zones of Russian Federation. Not long after her book February 2, 2004 was published, a bomb blew up outside her apartment.

In her second book "Farewell of the Kremlin Digger"(2004) Tregubova writes on the Kremlin’s attempts to stop the first book from reaching the reader, and on the attempt on her life.

[edit] Publications Abroad

The Italian translation of "Tales of a Kremlin Digger" ("I mutanti del Cremlino"), came out in 2005 at the publishing house Piemme.^[6] The German publishing house Tropen Verlag released the book in German ("Die Mutanten des Kremls") in October, 2006.^[7]

Tregubova raised her profile in Germany in connection with the murder of the Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya (7.10.2006). On October 12, 2006, after Politkovskaya's assassination the German newspaper "Zeit" published a letter from Tregubova entitled "Silence is partnership", addressed to German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Tregubova demanded that the chancellor actively oppose the suppression of press freedom in Russia.^[8]

Tregubova's books have not yet been translated into English.

[edit] Political Asylum

On 23 April 2007 Trebugova filed an application for political asylum to Britain's Home Office, claiming her life is in "mortal danger" in Russia. ^[9]^[10]. On 1 April 2008, she told Reuters that the request had been granted^[11].