Daria Talanova

2023

Entry type: Portfolio

Country/area: Latvia

Publishing organisation: Daria Talanova

Organisation size: Small

Cover letter:

Two years ago, I wrote a text about the authorities’ attempts to ban single pickets, the only form of protest available to Russians at that time. The text was published by Novaya Gazeta, where I have been working since then.
In what conditions prisoners live, how many people have died from the coronavirus, how the authorities are fighting freedom of speech on the Internet – I tried to answer these questions using open data: court decisions, state registers, information from websites.
On February 24, the war began. From Moscow, I moved to Riga with my editorial staff. Since then, most of my texts are about the war and its consequences. We write about falling incomes of the population, attempts by officials to evade sanctions, and count the number of Russian soldiers who died in the war.
I consider my work, especially now, extremely important. We are trying to preserve the opportunity for Russians to navigate the agenda, since for them the few independent media are the only source of information.

Description of portfolio:

In the text “Terror trouble and colonels”, I, using data from the Russian FSB, the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Judicial Department, told how the fight against terrorism in the North Caucasus turned into the persecution of schoolchildren, Muslims and protesters throughout Russia.
In the text “When it comes to weapons, age isn’t just a number”, using open international data, I analyzed the state of Russian military equipment at the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine.
For the “Kids with guns” text, I parsed the websites of 9,000 Russian schools to understand how education and extracurricular activities are becoming more militaristic and how propaganda is infiltrating schools.
Before the start of the autumn conscription into the army, I analyzed the texts of lawsuits against military registration and enlistment offices over the past six years. It turned out that many conscripts are drafted into the army with asthma and diabetes.
At the moment when the “grain deal” between Russia and Ukraine is under threat, we decided to analyze how grain is exported from the Black Sea ports and what role the deal plays for the whole world. In the text “The Kremlin diet” I described how Russia manipulated grain prices and deliberately delayed grain ships for inspection in Turkey.