President Putin is not a loyal reader

When Dutch media magnate Derk Sauer died in a tragic accident in July, he left behind The Moscow Times, which was launched just three months after the Soviet collapse in March 1992. It became Russia’s first independent English-language newspaper - a vital window into post-Soviet Russia for the outside world, and a launchpad for generations of journalists, both Russian and international, including several Pulitzer Prize winners. Remarkably, it still endures - though now in exile. Driven out by the Kremlin’s relentless crackdown on independent media, it operates today from Amsterdam, along with TV Dozhd’ (Rain), the independent news channel Derk also helped to relocate. The Moscow office is shuttered, the newsroom dispersed, and Derk lives on as a black-and-white photograph on the wall. Yet The Moscow Times continues to publish from a distance, its focus unchanged. And yes - with apologies to Celine Dion - it will go on.