Sarah Rainsford, a veteran BBC correspondent, reflects on her time in Russia in her new book, “Goodbye to Russia.” Rainsford arrived in Russia just weeks after the Soviet Union dissolved, equipped with a guidebook to a country that had ceased to exist and a suitcase of dehydrated meals. The Moscow she encountered as an 18-year-old has since vanished, replaced by a landscape dominated by fear and control.
“Goodbye to Russia” recounts Rainsford’s departure from a nation she has long reported on and admired. Her expulsion from Russia in 2021 and the subsequent invasion of Ukraine in 2022 form the backdrop of her book. Originally planned as a narrative of Russians resisting the Kremlin’s growing repression, the book evolved into a personal account of how the Kremlin’s brutality was always apparent, particularly after Rainsford reported on the war in Ukraine firsthand.
The book is rich with vivid recollections of Rainsford’s early years in Russia. These include her time deciphering Anna Karenina while working at a bar in St. Petersburg and learning Russian swearing while foraging for mushrooms. Her accounts of warm-hearted Russians who shared their limited resources with her as the first foreigner they met highlight the stark contrast between the country she once knew and the current state of repression.
These personal anecdotes are interspersed with Rainsford’s observations of Russia’s decline, making her expulsion in 2021 all the more striking. No official reason was provided for her expulsion, though state media portrayed it as a retaliatory move following London’s refusal to renew a visa for a Russian journalist working for the state-run TASS agency.
Following her expulsion, Rainsford struggled with the inability to cover stories about Russia directly and challenge the Kremlin’s narrative from within. Despite some viewing her expulsion as a “badge of honor,” Rainsford felt a profound sense of loss.
Witnessing the destruction in Ukraine further deepened her sense of disconnection from her former home. On returning from her first reporting trip to Ukraine, she found it difficult to engage with anything related to her past life in Russia.
While Russia has always been a challenging environment for journalists, foreign correspondents generally faced fewer obstacles compared to their Russian counterparts who opposed the Kremlin. Since its establishment, six journalists associated with the Nobel Prize-winning Novaya Gazeta have been killed.
Rainsford’s tenure at the BBC’s Moscow bureau began on the day of the Kursk submarine disaster, an event that underscored how journalists could challenge the Kremlin’s image of invincibility. She reported on various crises, including the Dubrovka theater siege, the Beslan school siege, and the aftermath of the Second Chechen War, which highlighted the Kremlin’s willingness to sacrifice its own citizens for the regime’s survival.
A significant turning point for Rainsford was the 2015 assassination of Boris Nemtsov near the Kremlin. Nemtsov, a former protégé of Boris Yeltsin, was expected to be Yeltsin’s successor but was overshadowed by Putin. Nemtsov’s death, following his large protest against the 2014 invasion of Ukraine, marked a darker period for Russia.
Nemtsov’s protégés, Ilya Yashin and Vladimir Kara-Murza, also faced severe consequences for their advocacy of democratic reforms. Kara-Murza was poisoned twice in the 2010s and both men were imprisoned after opposing the Ukraine invasion. Rainsford covered their careers and witnessed the suppression of democratic opposition.
In her book, Rainsford recounts a campaign by Yashin and the publication of a fake newspaper aimed at discrediting him. Despite the publication of such propaganda, many political prisoners, both Russian and American, have been released, though their struggles continue.
Rainsford observes that former prisoners like Yashin and Kara-Murza were freed under difficult circumstances and face a new set of challenges. Their return to Russia remains uncertain, and Rainsford is curious to see how they will adapt and whether they can unite the Russian opposition abroad.
Rainsford remains hopeful that the future of Russia might be brightened by those who showed support at Alexei Navalny’s grave earlier this year. Though their numbers were small, their chants of “no to war” and calls for a free Russia reflect a willingness to speak out against repression. Rainsford believes that despite the current state of affairs, the future holds potential for change, even if it requires overcoming widespread misinformation and skepticism.
Armed with a Laptop and a cup of coffee, Rothschild is on a mission to conquer the news world, one headline at a time.