Persecuted at home, a German journalist finds freedom in Russia

Since Covid began, NATO governments have embraced the liberal totalitarian model, cementing control over the media. Germany's effort to destroy journalist Alina Lipp is proof that we live in "1984".

Alina Lipp’s truthful reporting in Donbass scared NATO leaders

Today, if you want a career in journalism in the West then you have to serve the ruling elite, which means slamming Russia and China at every chance and promoting conflict with those countries. As a journalist advancing NATO’s policies, you’re a member of the privileged official media caste. And like any self-serving syndicate, they always take care of their own. 

Just look at the U.S. and British media’s reaction to the arrest of Wall Street Journal correspondent Evan Gershkovich, who was charged with illegally trying to obtain information about a Russian defense company. As I wrote previously, Gershkovich has a record of eagerly promoting NATO’s hostile policies towards Russia.

With its trademark hysteria and hyperbole, U.S. and British media have called Gershkovich’s arrest “a clear act of hostage-taking”; “a total outrage,”; “a declaration of war against all journalists”; as well as “journalism is not a crime.” The National Press Club rushed to award its highest honor to Gershkovich.

None of the above is true, however. In fact, Russia is safe for journalists. I know many who work there — Russians, Americans, and Europeans. None have had any problems doing their job. Up until Gershkovich’s arrest, not a single western journalist was ever arrested in post-Soviet Russia. Not one. If Russia was truly repressive, then western journalists would be arrested often. But they’re not.

The last thing that Russia needs is to wrongly detain a western journalist. There’s absolutely no benefit from it. The fact that such drastic measures were taken by Russian authorities indicates that Gershkovich most likely broke the law, perhaps out of stupidity or the arrogant belief that he’s above the law, which is a sentiment quite common among western correspondents working in Russia.

NATO’s war on independent journalism

We must distinguish between corporate and independent media. While journalists working for western corporate media are obliged to promote NATO propaganda, there are independent western journalists in Russia who can freely work, even live in Donbass and Crimea. And they have provided the international community with some of the finest and most accurate coverage of the conflict.

The only threat that independent western journalists face is from their own government. Yes, you read that correctly — western journalists in Russia who report the truth have to fear their own governments; not the Russian government. Sadly, truthful journalism is a crime in the West.

There are many examples of media persecution in the West, most notably the tragedy of Julian Assange, but one very disturbing recent example is Germany’s vicious persecution of independent journalist Alina Lipp, who has been reporting on Ukrainian war crimes in Donbass since 2021.

I first heard about Ms Lipp last summer and began to follow her on Telegram, but otherwise I hadn’t given her case much thought until the Gershkovich media circus. My first reaction to that circus was — Where were these ardent defenders of press freedoms when Ms Lipp was threatened by the German government?

Why hasn’t Ms Lipp’s courageous journalism earned her awards and accolades in the West? Why won’t anyone in the western corporate media rally to her defense. Instead, however, they attack her viciously.

Over the past nine months, Vice magazine, The Times (UK), The Telegraph (UK), and NBC TV have all done ‘hit’ pieces on Ms Lipp for her reporting Ukrainian war crimes; she’s been falsely accused of acting as a ‘Russian agent’. The venom in those western media ‘hit’ pieces is just what one expects from a totalitarian regime.

Alina Lipp reporting in Donbass

In March 2022, Ms Lipp had about 30,000 followers on Telegram. Today, she has 186,000. That’s impressive growth, which is why NATO is afraid of her. Ms Lipp’s testimony is powerful because it’s true and sincere. And more than anything, NATO understands that a truthful testimony can easily go viral, and in doing so, undermine their plans for global empire.

NATO governments want to shut up dissenters and make examples out of free and courageous journalists such as Ms Lipp, so that others will be afraid and won’t speak the truth. Anyone who disagrees with NATO’s narrative and who exposes the truth about Ukrainian war crimes is smeared as a ‘Russian agent’.

I decided to seek out Ms Lipp and ask a few questions. Even though she and I are not previously acquainted, she answered me within 12 hours. She has been very open and ready to answer questions. Here’s the full interview; only edited for clarity.

Could you please tell us about yourself?

I was born in Hamburg, Germany, where I lived my whole life until 2021 - that’s when I travelled to Donetsk for the first time. My mother is German; my father Russian, born in the former Leningrad, today's St. Petersburg. They met during a peace regatta between Germany and the Soviet Union, so this is probably the moment where my destiny was determined.

I never learned Russian and only started to learn the language at age 18 because I wanted to be able to talk to my relatives in Russia. My father moved to Russia in 2018 after 27 years in Germany. He couldn’t stand the anti-Russian atmosphere there.

How and Why did you come to Donbass?

I came to Donbass in August 2021 because I wanted to see everything with my own eyes. After I understood what’s going on, after I saw that civilians are being killed by Kiev’s forces, I decided to report on that and I returned in October (2021)

As a hobby, starting in 2019, I had YouTube channels about German-Russian relations. Mainly I did interviews with experts, authors, and activists. But my main focus was environmental sustainability and I wanted to work in green politics.

In November 2021, I started my Donbass channel on Telegram. [For links to her work, please see the end of this article]. On February 23 [2022], I had 8,000 followers; but by February 27 [2022] that number rose to 31,000, and getting more and more every day. Now, my Telegram channel has 180,000 followers. So since the beginning of the Special Military Operation my audience grew immensely.

People trust me because I was in Donbass and I could "show them around" every day with my phone camera. I'm not a paid journalist with a film team, so my material obviously is authentic. That's what people really appreciate in my work.

The entrance to the city of Mariupol. Photo by Alina Lipp

What persecution have you faced from German authorities?

Soon after the beginning of the Special Military Operation, the German government began to investigate my media activities. Suddenly my PayPal account was blocked, my bank accounts were closed, and just before that €1,600 was taken from one of the accounts. YouTube and Facebook deleted my content.

Only in June [2022] I learned that the German government had opened a criminal case, claiming that I support the “illegal aggressive Russian war”, and charged me with “money laundering”, which is absolutely ridiculous. So, while I didn't flee Germany, the fact is that I can’t go back due to political persecution.

The government also closed my parents’ bank accounts without warning, and my mom noticed a minivan next to her house, regularly parked; police would knock on her door. We were afraid for her safety. So she sold the house and came to Russia.

Recently, a cultural center in Berlin that shows alternative films received many angry calls from police after it had already announced the screening of my documentary film about Donbass. The center got scared and cancelled the event, and issued a statement saying that they “do not support Alina Lipp’s Russian propaganda”.

Are journalists controlled in Russia and harassed?

I was never persecuted or threatened in Russia. In all my time at the Donbass front, no one told me what to say or not to say. When we foreign journalists went to dangerous places, Russian soldiers were there only for safety reasons; we could move freely. They didn't even hear what, for example, the locals told us during the interviews.

Nobody from the Russian government ever asked to see the material afterwards. A lot of times we went with a private car to the areas controlled by Russia, without any escort. Without problems!

From what I know about Russian security services, they always have a good reason for what they do. As far as Gershkovich… if he went to an important defense company and wanted to report on that … well, let’s think what would happen if a Russian journalist went to such a place in the U.S.? We all know what would happen.

Photo by Alina Lipp

Could you tell us about your work on the Donbass front over the past year?

The people of Mariupol welcomed the Russians as liberators [March-April 2022] because the Ukrainians had been killing them. I visited a refugee camp and spoke to the first refugees that made it out of Mariupol. A mother of two children told me that Ukraine’s Azov Battalion shelled the supermarkets to create a humanitarian crisis. Everybody was sitting in their basements. When this family's house was shelled, they fled to a restaurant basement. On the way they saw lots of corpses, even children. 

The Ukrainians sealed off Mariupol at the end of February [2022] and wouldn’t allow the locals to evacuate. Azov Battalion opened fire on civilians who tried to flee. I have on camera and in my movie many interviews where civilians describe how Ukrainians shot at locals' houses, at supermarkets, as well as people on the street. This was all BEFORE the Russians arrived.

What experiences have you had with western journalists?

There were press tours organized by the Russian Defense Ministry every three weeks to different parts of Donbass. On one press tour I saw journalists from the official media of India and China, but Western journalists were almost only from alternative media. I heard that German media forbid their journalists to go on those tours.

German TV has no coverage from Donbass because they don't have correspondents there. If you stop and think about this, well, it's really insane. Every journalist knows that the basic rule of journalism is always to give coverage to both sides.

I myself gave dozens of interviews to western journalists, but most of these were alternative, anti-establishment media. But once, right after the start of the Special Military Operation, I talked to German mainstream media, but all they aired was just 10 seconds of that interview, and presented me as a Kremlin-spokesperson. They didn't say one word about my real reason for being in Donbass: documenting the murder of civilians by the Ukrainian army.

In general, what persecution do German journalists often face?

I talked to a couple of German journalists who once worked for mainstream media and were fired because of their dissenting view on certain topics. Also, a German journalist who I know wasn't allowed to publish an objective interview that he made with me; and after this he was branded a “Putin troll” by his colleagues. He was very shocked and in the end he opened his own alternative newspaper.

Most media companies in Germany are not independent. They’re directly connected to transatlantic organizations and corporations. The West wants Ukraine to win and they don't want to hear reports on the cruelty of Ukrainian forces, or about how western weapons are used to kill civilians in Donbass.

Are you intimidated by Germany’s persecution?

I'm not intimidated, but I'm hurt that the country of my birth is doing this, simply because I'm trying to help the Donbass people to defend their right to live in freedom. These are noble goals, and it's shocking to see my government prosecute me for this. So, how can I stop? How can I quit and live peacefully in such a world, knowing what’s really going on? Western governments are going down a very dangerous path and we need every person to help stop where this is developing.

Ms Lipp’s links:

Telegram: https://t.me/neuesausrussland

Documentary film, “Donbass, In Search of the Truth”: https://t.me/infodefENGLAND/4622