Elena Kostyuchenko

May 7, 2024 | globalfreedomofexpression.columbia.edu | Elena Kostyuchenko

Watch Elena Kostyuchenko speak on our YouTube channelI am a journalist. All I am doing is writing and talking to people. Recently, I was filling out a questionnaire and had to dredge my memory for all my run-ins with the law. Honestly, I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve been detained by police. More than twenty, I think. Sometimes it just meant being stuck in a cage for hours, but I’ve had policemen spit at me, beat me up on occasion, and once, shove me down a flight of stairs.

Apr 1, 2024 | nybooks.com | Bela Shayevich |Elena Kostyuchenko

Every time a foreign friend asks me about elections in Russia, I go through a familiar cycle: first awkwardness, then confusion, then shame. I freeze inside. Now I will have to tell them. I smile stupidly and choose my words: “We don’t exactly have elections in Russia.” We have a ritual called an election.

Mar 16, 2024 | thisamericanlife.org | Elena Kostyuchenko |Bela Shayevich

Elena Kostyuchenko tells the story of how she was probably poisoned after reporting on Russian’s invasion of Ukraine, and how she kept not believing it was happening. Bela Shayevich translated this story from Russian and reads it for us. (21 minutes)We adapted this from an article in n+1 magazine. Elena’s book is I Love Russia: Reporting from a Lost Country.

Mar 16, 2024 | thisamericanlife.org | Elena Kostyuchenko |Bela Shayevich

Elena Kostyuchenko tells the story of how she was probably poisoned after reporting on Russian’s invasion of Ukraine, and how she kept not believing it was happening. Bela Shayevich translated this story from Russian and reads it for us. (21 minutes)We adapted this from an article in n+1 magazine. Elena’s book is I Love Russia: Reporting from a Lost Country. By Elena Kostyuchenko and Bela Shayevich; Produced by Nancy Updike and Valerie Kipnis

Feb 25, 2024 | rsn.org | Elena Kostyuchenko

My mother plaits camouflage nets for soldiers, and when we try to talk about what’s happening in Ukraine we end up shoutingEvery night, I am back in Russia. Last night, Mama and I were walking through a wet, springtime forest. We were going to bury the dead cat we carried in a box. I haven’t been to Russia in two years. I went on assignment to Ukraine in February 2022, but there was no returning: in the eyes of the Russian state my work became a crime, which put my life in danger.