We’ve lost all our donations from Russia. Mediazona cannot survive without you

Cloudpayments, an online payment processor, has cut off donations to Mediazona from Russian bank cards—abruptly and without any explanation. As an independent Russian news outlet, we always knew this day would come. That doesn’t make the blow any lighter.

Mediazona remains the most-cited independent Russian news outlet, according to media monitoring service The True Story. We bring you sober, data-driven journalism on Russia’s military losses in Ukraine, on ever-widening political repression, and on how Russian society is changing. We’ve just calculated: in June, more than a third of everything we published was our own exclusive reporting, stories you won’t find anywhere else.

Overnight, we lost over 1,500 regular donors who contributed over $10,000 (800,000 roubles) monthly. That’s around $125,000 a year—for Mediazona, that’s very serious money. A huge thank you to everyone who has supported us, and to everyone who still does! It’s invaluable.

A year ago, your donations saved Mediazona when we were on the brink. Back then, we said then that we needed 5,000 people giving from non-Russian cards to survive. Thanks to you, we hit that target—but the number has plateaued since, and we still relied heavily on donations from inside Russia. That’s no longer possible.

Now we urgently need to make up what we’ve lost: another 1,500 donors, giving with foreign cards only. It’s a big ask, and we’ll be honest: we’re afraid we might not be able to do it. Times are hard for everyone, and there’s no shortage of initiatives that need help.

If you’ve been thinking about donating to Mediazona,now is the time.

If you have friends in Russia who can no longer give, consider donating on their behalf.

If you know someone who might be willing to help, please spread the word.

Once again, we're asking you to save Mediazona. We can’t do it without you: donate.zona.media