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Investigating Russia's Elite: Maria Zholobova in Profile

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Investigating Russia's Elite: Maria Zholobova in Profile investigative journalist Paul Klebnikov by bringing promising Russian journal- INVESTIGATING ists to New York for three weeks and introduces them to various experts and media professionals. RUSSIA’S ELITE Founded by Klebnikov’s widow, Musa, shortly after his death, the fel- lowship continues Klebnikov’s efforts Maria Zholobova in Profile to support the creation of a free and independent Russian press and to help Russian journalists expand their BY MASHA UDENSIVA-BRENNER professional networks in the U.S., learn Western journalistic techniques, and publish in Western publications. Musa Klebnikov hopes it will produce “a n a hot, sunny morning in (HTRU), which prosecutes sex and whole cadre of Russian journalists who late April, Maria Zholobova, labor trafficking crimes and provides think more of themselves because they a Moscow-based investiga- support for victims, Zholobova mar- have been abroad.” tive journalist on her first vels at the pleasant atmosphere—the Otrip to the United States, walks into the children’s play area, the calming tree Holderness walks Zholobova down the cavernous halls of the New York Coun- painting mounted above the soft beige wide hallway to her spacious, sunny of- ty District Attorney’s Office in lower chairs. She’s there to meet with the fice and explains that the center’s pleas- Manhattan. Waiting to go through HTRU chief—a friendly blond woman ant atmosphere is intentional, designed the metal detector, she looks up at named Carolina Holderness—for an to avoid the cold, bureaucratic feel of the cylindrical lamps suspended from information session about the unit; it’s government offices so as not to “retrau- a golden sun decorating the white, part of a series of meetings and classes matize” trafficking victims. Zholobova vaulted ceilings, takes a breath, and says set up for her by the Harriman Institute is impressed. Such details would never “klassno” (awesome). during her residency as the 2019 Paul occur to the Russian government, which Upstairs in the waiting room at the Klebnikov Russian Civil Society Fellow. routinely prosecutes trafficking victims Human Trafficking Response Unit The fellowship honors the memory of rather than helping them. 16 | HARRIMAN Opposite page: Maria Zholobova hosted TV PROFILES Rain’s weekly segment, Fake News, where she uncovered inaccuracies in the Russian media. Photo courtesy of TV Rain. Working as an Working as an investigative journalist She managed to link the estate to the in Russia is dangerous. In 2019, Russia president through previous owners investigative journalist ranked 149 out of 180 on the annual Re- and the offshore company’s director. porters Without Borders press freedom “Of course, we’ll never be able to prove in Russia is dangerous. index. According to the Committee to the offshore is his,” she says. “It’s in the Protect Journalists, 39 journalists have world’s most protected jurisdiction.” In 2019, Russia ranked been murdered there since 1992. Forbes The day after her meeting with Hol- journalist Paul Klebnikov was the first derness, Zholobova, picking at a Cobb 149 out of 180 on and only U.S. journalist murdered in salad at a crowded Amsterdam Avenue the annual Reporters Russia. Klebnikov had spent much of restaurant, is still thinking about how his career investigating the connections to obtain the photos. There seems to be Without Borders press between Russia’s business elite and the a drone jammer in place, and Proekt’s criminal underworld. He received fre- drone—borrowed from the investiga- freedom index. quent death threats, briefly employed tive website Bellingcat—can’t make it a bodyguard, and spent years fighting higher than 10 meters without being a libel lawsuit brought against Forbes by deflected by radio frequency. “They Throughout the meeting, which the Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky. could knock our drone down; then takes place under a large photograph of In 2003, he moved to Moscow as the we’ll have to pay a lot of money,” she the Brooklyn Bridge, Zholobova leans founding editor of Forbes Russia; in says, twisting her lips in thought. forward, elbows planted on the round, July 2004, he was gunned down on the The property, valued at over 2 billion cherrywood table in Holderness’s street outside his office. To this day, his rubles ($31.5 million), has been erased office, and asks questions: “Do you have murder remains unsolved. from Google Maps. Zholobova, who enough financial support from your had to use pilot flight maps just to lo- government?” “How do you use data On the way out of Holderness’s cate the estate’s coordinates, visited the in your work?” “Have you ever been an office, Zholobova’s phone buzzes. site with a colleague a few weeks prior. anonymous source for journalists?” Suddenly, she’s pacing the hot, crowd- Getting off on the “wrong” side of Rubly- Zholobova, who is 30, has been ed sidewalk outside the DA’s building, ovskoye shosse (a highway connecting working for various Russian news coordinating logistics with a Russian Moscow elites to fancy country homes), outlets for almost a decade. In August drone operator she’s hired to photo- 2018, she moved from a job at Russia’s graph a high-security estate hidden in a independent TV Rain to Proekt, a new compound outside Moscow. An estate Zholobova in her room at Columbia’s Butler U.S.-registered Russian media start-up that, she has good reason to believe, Hall. Photo by Masha Udensiva-Brenner. modeled loosely on the U.S. investigative belongs to President Putin. nonprofit ProPublica. In her relatively Zholobova spends much of her time brief career, she’s investigated every- in front of her laptop, scouring open thing from Russia’s infrastructural prob- databases for property ownership lems to its criminal networks, President records. She uses them to uncover Vladimir Putin’s inner circles, and the the hidden assets of Russian officials— hidden assets of public officials. When expensive properties paid for with Holderness learns that Zholobova’s story undisclosed funds and erased from about an alleged St. Petersburg mobster public view. She found the estate in with ties to Putin has landed the young question by looking at the ownership journalist in the middle of a criminal records of old Soviet government da- slander investigation, she looks con- chas (country homes). It aroused her cerned. Zholobova shrugs and laughs suspicion when she noticed ownership it off. “Don’t worry,” she says. “Nothing records from an offshore company happened—just a case in Russia.” registered in the British Virgin Islands. HARRIMAN | 17 Zholobova meeting media, they never tried to hold back with BuzzFeed’s her career as an independent journal- World editor Miriam ist. When they watched her on Fake Elder during her News, all they said was, “be softer; why residency at the are you offending people so much?” Harriman Institute. Photo by Masha That afternoon, in a profile writing Udensiva-Brenner. class at Columbia Journalism School, Zholobova watches the professor—a pe- Mild-mannered tite woman with glasses and short, gray and makeup-free, hair—write student sentences on the Zholobova seems whiteboard and cross out unnecessary nothing like the words in green marker. intimidating, Zholobova attended journalism stiletto-donning school at the Institute for Journalism persona who used and Literary Arts in Moscow, but she to expose Russian did not learn how to write. Nor did she media fabrications learn any investigative techniques. The on TV Rain, where education, she says, revolved around she hosted a week- literature and trends in the field rather ly segment called than practical skills. She is amazed Fake News. to attend classes—“Art of the Profile,” “We had a speech “Deadline Writing,” “Investigative Proj- coach who told me ects”—that teach things she and other to act like a bitch,” Russian journalism school grads have they’d walked through a desolate village she says with a laugh. In the nearly two had to learn in the field. of half-abandoned garages and across years she worked for Rain (late 2016 to After graduation, Zholobova worked a field of horse manure, to reach a tall, late 2018), Zholobova spent the bulk of for a book publisher, then won a impenetrable fence on the banks of her time on an investigative documen- contest that landed her an internship Moscow River. Zholobova managed to tary series about the criminal networks at Komsomolskaya Pravda, the most climb high enough to see to the other in St. Petersburg and their connections popular newspaper in Russia. The side, only to face another fence. to President Putin. It was her first time work was boring—“it’s yellow journal- “Weren’t there cameras?” I ask. in TV journalism, and she never got fully ism that publishes unverified facts,” “Of course,” she says. “Several.” comfortable with it—she prefers writing. says Zholobova—but it got her enough “TV doesn’t leave room for nuance,” experience to move to a better place. After lunch, Zholobova stops by her she explains. By 24, Zholobova was happily working room in Columbia’s Butler Hall—a Zholobova has loved writing since at the respected Russian business daily hotel-like prewar building on 119th and childhood, shunning other subjects in Kommersant, learning the ins and outs Morningside—to pick up a Band-Aid be- school as she excelled in the human- of business reporting. But the experi- fore heading to class at Columbia Jour- ities and composition. Growing up ence ended abruptly in 2013. nalism School. She glances at herself in in Kirov, a small city about 600 miles In late September of that year, Zholo- the mirror: straight, blond hair cropped west of Moscow, Zholobova says she bova’s editor sent her to a lecture by above the shoulders, a black sweatshirt had a “very ordinary” childhood.
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