Russian journalists fill pro-Putin website with anti-war articles

Two Russian journalists who work at a pro-Kremlin outlet flooded the website with articles denouncing the war in Ukraine and Vladimir Putin on the day the country celebrates its victory over Nazi Germany.

The dozens of articles published on Lenta.ru said Putin was a “pitiful paranoid dictator” and alleged he was responsible for “the bloodiest war of the 21st century,” according to The Guardian.

“We had to do it today. We wanted to remind everyone what our grandfathers really fought for on this beautiful Victory Day: for peace,” journalist Egor Polyakov tells the paper.

The articles have since been taken down.

“Ordinary people are dying, peaceful women and children are dying in Ukraine. Given the rhetoric that we have seen, this isn’t going to stop. We couldn’t accept this any longer. This was the only right thing we could do,” Polyakov says.

He tells The Guardian he fears for his safety after his and Alexandra Miroshnikova’s actions.

“But I knew what I was doing, what the consequences could be.”