'My Undesirable Friends Part II - Exile' follows journalists forced to flee Russia

WBUR

Published October 9, 2026 at 12:05 PM EDT

Irina Dolinina works for Important Stories and is featured in the documentary. (Courtesy of Julia Loktev)

A number of young journalists fled Russia after President Vladimir Putin’s regime intensified its clampdown on the media when the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine began in 2022.

Calling the war a “war” instead of the government-approved phrase “special military operation” became a crime. Reporting information from any other source but the military became a crime. Independent news organizations were shuttered,. Journalists were threatened, searched, arrested, and faced time in prison for reporting.

The new documentary “My Undesirable Friends Part II – Exile” follows a group of journalists as they leave Russia and move around Europe and the United States, trying to keep doing their jobs in exile. It’s the follow-up to the 2025 “My Undesirable Friends.”

Here & Now‘s Scott Tong speaks with filmmaker Julia Loktev, and journalists Irina Dolinina and Alesya Marokhovskaya who work for Important Stories.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.