Elena Tregubova is known to everyone who has long been following Russian journalism and politics. This journalist, who worked at the time in the publications Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Today, and Russian Telegraph, managed to write the acclaimed book The Kremlin Digger Tales. It was this fact that attracted the attention of both politicians and the public.
Biographical data
Elena Tregubova was born on May 24, 1973 in Moscow. In the direction of journalism, the choice was made in 1991. According to Elena, the journalists were always in opposition to the existing government and this allowed them to be heroes of the people. Obviously, such a vision of the situation inspired the future writer and journalist.
As a result, Elena Tregubova successfully graduated from the Faculty of Journalism at Moscow State University. Having started her career at Nezavisimaya Gazeta, she eventually made it to the famous Komersant newspaper, while having time, in between newspaper work, to test her strength on Deutsche Welle radio.
Attention also deserves the fact that Elena Tregubova was a member of the Kremlin press service from 1997 to 2001. This is the so-called Kremlin pool, which in fact was a community of journalists accredited under the President of the Russian Federation.
Thanks to this activity, Elena managed to interview many important people who worked in the administration, including Vladimir Putin and Anatoly Chubais.
The origin of conflict
According to the views held by Elena Tregubova, a journalist should act in the interests of the people and not be a defender of dishonest power. It was this aspect of her worldview, which often found expression in articles, that led to the loss of loyalty on the part of the country's political elite.
Soon, the presidential spokesman stopped letting Elena attend official briefings that other correspondents could attend. The journalist in her book “Tales of the Kremlin Digger” claims that Gromov named Putin’s personal initiative as the reason for the constant refusals. He explained a similar reaction by the president’s discontent over the situation when Elena Tregubova asked him about relations with Boris Berezovsky.
The result of bold assessments of the Kremlin's activity was the exclusion of Tregubova from the list of journalists who are accredited to work with the presidential administration. It happened under Vladimir Putin in 2001.
Assassination History
Elena Tregubova is a journalist who did not like to turn a blind eye to the government’s illegal actions, in her opinion. It is for this reason that she decided to present to the public information compromising the authorities in the form of the book “Tales of the Kremlin Digger”.
As a result, 4 months after the publication, in February 2004, the writer received a phone call from a man who introduced himself as an employee of Sheremetyevo Airport. According to him, he had to hand over a package to Elena Tregubova and for this he asked for the address where he could be delivered. The journalist refused to provide such information, after which the caller hung up. After February 2, an explosion occurred near the door of the apartment in which the writer lived. Experts found that it was a makeshift explosive device. After that, Elena Tregubova, whose photo appeared in the news releases, realized that she was in danger.
As for the investigators of the Tver inter-district prosecutor’s office, they did not consider it necessary to initiate a criminal case, defining what happened as an act of hooliganism.
Attempts to hush up the incident
Despite the fact that the prosecutor’s office did not consider it necessary to link the vigorous activity of Tregubova and the explosion near the doors of her apartment, the journalist herself took the initiative to give official testimony, more than once. But law enforcement agencies did not show reciprocal interest.
But unlike the police and the prosecutor's office, domestic and world media described this incident as an attempt on the life of a journalist, as a result of which the explosion acquired a new status. Elena Tregubova was summoned for questioning at the police department. But the case was never instituted.
The journalist herself believed that the refusal of the police to take evidence from her and the subsequent ignoring of the real reason for initiating the proceedings indirectly indicate involvement in the attempt on the part of the authorities. She also connected the fact of the explosion with the fact that the day before, during the interview, she talked about working on a second book with no less provocative content. According to the journalist, this fact may not have pleased the authorities and they reacted quite harshly.
But subsequently, already in an interview with the Komersant newspaper, Tregubova changed her own attitude to the situation, voicing her doubts about involvement in the explosion of special services. She believed that Putin was not interested in such incidents on the eve of the election.
Contrary to the general assessment of the explosion that sounded in the media, the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper the day after the incident posted an article stating that the whole story of the explosion was nothing more than an advertising move aimed at raising the rating of the published book “Kremlin Digger Tales”.
At the same time, the newspaper itself defined the book as a mediocre literary product and ranked the fact of its publication as a consequence of the work of supporters of Boris Berezovsky. The article also claimed that police officers conducted a survey of Tregubova immediately after the explosion.
First book
It was The Tales of the Kremlin Digger that marked the beginning of a writing career in which Elena Tregubova decided to find herself. Photos of the uncompromising journalist became recognizable, since the book published in 2003 was more than popular among Russian readers.
The fact that Elena’s work was included in the bestseller list can be explained by a rather bold presentation of the history of her activities as a Kremlin correspondent and criticism of the political elite of Russia. In her book, she describes the state’s control of media recorded by her. Tregubova openly speaks out against the Putin regime, emphasizing the fact of censorship, pressure on freedom of speech and authoritarian tendencies.
A certain part of literary critics spoke negatively about the book. In their opinion, the journalist presented the reader with a subjective assessment of the situation, they also emphasized the author’s groundlessness, in their opinion, that they were right.
Interesting Facts
In the first book of Elena Tregubova, the government is compared with mutants, creatures that have a different, inhuman nature. The book itself began to be actively distributed even before it was officially published, in the form of photocopies. After it was put on sale, readers sold out all copies, of which there were 300 pieces.
Subsequently, even in Italy, this book was distributed. “Elena Tregubova“ Kremlin Mutants ”- it was in this design that the product of a well-known journalist hit the open spaces of the Italian book market in 2005. The march of Kremlin history in Europe did not stop there, and in 2006 the book was published in German (Die Mutanten des Kremls). For work with the creation of Tregubova took the publishing house Tropen Verlag.
In general, the position of the author was accepted by the European reader. The Berliner Zeitung, in turn, noted that the book can be described as a masterpiece that laid bare the real state of power mechanisms in Russia.
Tregubova herself claimed that she had received a proposal from Hollywood regarding the writing of the script, which should have been based on the facts from her book.
Comments by domestic media
Books by Elena Tregubova, according to representatives of the Russian media space, provoked a negative reaction from the Kremlin, especially from those who were mentioned in the story. The media also disseminated information that Tregubov was put on the so-called special account, thus identifying her as a journalist who was objectionable to the authorities.
In November 2003, the NTV channel even prepared a large story that was directly related to Tregubova and her conflict with the administration of President Vladimir Putin. But the plot failed to get on the air. According to the personal initiative of the general director of the company, he was removed just before the show.
Subsequently, this action was defined as a manifestation of political censorship. That is how various public figures took the reaction of the general director, including Fedotov himself - secretary of the Union of Journalists of Russia.
Government response
Tregubova Elena Viktorovna, whose photo the Russian reader personified criticized the government, of course, did not cause positive emotions among Kremlin representatives, especially after the publication of the book.
In addition to the fact that Elena Tregubova had to leave Komersant (the editor-in-chief later admitted the fact of pressure), an interview with her, which was in the NTV archives, was subsequently withdrawn. Although earlier this channel was known for its critical position.
In other words, representatives of the presidential administration made it clear that they did not like both the article and the book. The result of such a reaction from the authorities was the new book by Elena Tregubova “Farewell to the Kremlin Digger”.
Official speaking
Some time later, the Russian journalist again recalled herself. This happened immediately after the murder of Anna Politkovskaya. 5 days after this event, Tregubova published an open letter to Angela Merkel in the German newspaper Zeit.
The letter was called "Silence is complicity." In it, the journalist blamed the president of Russia for the murder of Politkovskaya, and also voiced claims to the Russian authorities regarding violation of human rights and the prosecution of freedom of speech. Tregubova also asked the German Chancellor to influence the situation in Russia - to help stop the stable elimination of free media and stop the violation of the rights of Russian citizens.
After such an initiative, according to the writer, near her house one could notice two people who watched her daily.
Immigration
Realizing that inside the country she was not able to have a tangible impact on the situation, Elena Tregubova left Russia and left for England.
The idea of moving got its more concrete development after in March 2007, during the interrogation of Boris Berezovsky, representatives of the prosecutor's office were interested in the personality of Tregubova. The interrogation was related to the Litvinenko case. Berezovsky regarded such issues as a potential threat to the journalist.
It was then that Elena Tregubova made a choice in favor of moving to England. Where she lives now is not a secret. The writer leads an active life in the UK, having the status of a political emigrant.
It is worth noting that already in Europe, she did not stop interviewing and in articles demanding officials to pay attention to the harsh methods of the political elite of the Russian Federation.
