from a village in Gironde, an associative radio broadcasts as far as Russia to counter Moscow’s propaganda

In a small house in Auros (Gironde), between a pharmacy and a meadow, the Radio for Peace International (RFPI) station is installed. From this village of 600 inhabitants, this radio broadcasts on short waves and in the Russian language to fight against the propaganda of the Moscow regime since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. With a simple mixing console, headphones and a computer, Sylvain Clament organizes his own shows three times a week, between news flashes and reports.

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The reports, precisely, are carried out voluntarily by Chechen, Ukrainian and Russian journalists who have taken refuge all over Europe. “I’m aware that it’s not much, but at least we don’t sit idly by. Something has to be done”, testifies Anastasia Kirilenko from Paris. She is currently producing a subject about the Kremlin’s links with the mafia. “I have wiretaps obtained by the justice system”she explains to Sylvain Clament.

For one who fled Russia in 2014 after the annexation of Crimea, doing her job freely was not possible. Participating in this antenna is for her the opportunity to counter the Kremlin’s propaganda. “Furthermore, Facebook and Twitter were shut down. It was therefore necessary to find alternative means of disseminating information to the Internet”adds Sylvain Clament.

From the Girondin studio, the antenna is sent via the internet to Florida, in the United States, and broadcast from huge antennas to Russia where the waves water the whole country. The Kremlin therefore has no means of opposing this broadcast.

“We suspect that what we are doing is known but, for the moment, we have not received any pressure and we do not think we will have any if the conflict does not spread”

Sylvain Clament, director and manager of RFPI

at franceinfo

On the other side of the station, there are more and more followers of the radio RFPI, assures Sylvain Clament. “Russian listeners wrote to us to tell us that they had received our signal. They thanked us for the support. We know that we are received and that we have potentially several thousand listeners.” To improve the offer offered to these listeners, Sylvain Clament would like to broadcast longer and pay the journalists. For this, he relies on patrons.