Russia Insider is a news website that was launched in September 2014 by American expatriates living in Russia. The website describes itself as providing an alternative to how Russia is portrayed in the Western media. Other sources have described it as being "pro-Russian," "pro-Kremlin", advocating and pushing anti-semitism and creating false or misleading content.
Foundation and funding
Russia Insider was founded in 2014 by Charles Bausman, an expatriate who had lived in Moscow for nearly 30 years, and who had been dissatisfied with what he perceived as the Western media's coverage of the outbreak of the crisis in Ukraine. Bausman described the website as "citizen journalism" and stated that it has no relation to and is not funded by the Russian government. Its deputy editor is Riley Waggaman and its director of operations and human resources is David Curry. In late 2015, Anton Shekhovtsov who investigates the far-right in Russia, asserted that Bausman had sought funding from Russian oligarchKonstantin Malofeev, who is reportedly close to the Kremlin, citing emails leaked by Anonymous International in which Alexey Komov acted as an intermediary. Shekhovtsov, wrote, in an article for Haaretz in January 2018, that the website was "originally launched to attack Ukraine after its former president Viktor Yanukovych was ousted and fled to Russia, by accusing the new Ukrainian authorities of fascism and anti-Semitism." Casey Michel, writing in ThinkProgress in 2018, similarly asserted that "a series of leaked emails showed site founder and editor Charles Bausman requesting funding from Konstantin Malofeev...as Bausman wrote to one of Malofeev’s associates, 'I still need money!!'" The solicitation to Malofeev was cited as evidence of Russia Insider's connection to the far-right in Russia and Europe. The website itself has said it is dependent on crowdfunding, indicating that from 2014 to January 2018 it had received $300,000. The Daily Beast has said Bausman denies receiving money from Russian oligarchs.
Reception
The website has been criticized for its pro-Russian stance, accused of being among "pro-Kremlin propaganda sites" by Newsweek called "pro-Kremlin" by BBC News and the Slate website, and of disseminating "false or misleading content" by the RAND Corporation, It is considered by the Euractiv website to be alongside "several highly visible partisan outlets such as RT, Ruptly and Sputnik", Bausman has himself been invited to speak on Russian state owned TV Rossiya 1 and Russia Today. Russia Today later issued a statement which said: "RT categorically and unequivocally condemns the disgusting hate speech promoted by the recent Russia Insider article, its author, and the platform as a whole, and rejects any association to such". Russia Insider has reproduced RT content. When asked by The Daily Beast, Google said "when a copyright holder notifies us of a video that infringes their copyright, we remove the content promptly in accordance with the law". RT material remained on the Russia Insider website. On January 15, 2018, Russia Insider published an editorial by Bausman entitled "It's Time to Drop the Jew Taboo" in which he described the hostility to Putin's Russia as "largely a Jewish phenomenon," alleged a "strict taboo in the media of criticizing Jews as a group, and announced that "from now on, the pages of Russia Insider will be open to articles which fairly and honestly address the influence of Jewish elites, including pointing out when it is malevolent, which it often is". Vladislav Davidzon, contributing to the AmericanTablet magazine, wrote that the article "contained a comprehensive litany of the most vile accusations against Jews dating back more than one hundred years". Subsequently, antisemitic articles have appeared regularly. For example, on October 15, 2019 the site's main page pointed to articles with the following titles: "On the Necessity of Anti-semitism," "Holohoax Denial Is Not Illegal in Russia," "Another Bombshell Book Crushing the Holohoax Lie," "Nazi Germany Had Unequalled Quality of Life," The Russian Church in Exile Strongly Supported Hitler's Invasion of Russia," "Yet Another Jew Gives a Prescription for Getting Rid of White Gentiles."
