“Russian oppositional journalism is not an institution; it is a partisan movement” : Reconfigured professional identities among Russophone exile journalists in the Baltic States

Sammanfattning: Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, repressive legislative changes and tightened war-censorship prompted a new wave of media professionals leaving the Federation. This study explores how Russian journalists resettling in the Baltic states articulate their professional identity and view the Russian versus Baltic governments’ attitudes while adapting abroad. While recognizing the Russian oppositional sphere’s role in democracy promotion, this research draws insights from thirteen semi-structured interviews conducted in the fall of 2023 with exiled media professionals in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. The study employs Mark Deuze’s ideal typical values on professional ideology (public service, immediacy, autonomy, ethics, and objectivity) supplemented by Patric Raemy’s take on resilience theory, utilizing a hybrid inductive-deductive methodology with apriori themes of a) oppositionality and ideology, b) logistics and migration as well as c) adaptation and resilience. Findings showed that exiled journalists’ articulations of anti-war positions were intrinsically connected to their professional roles. There were also strong commitments to transparent information access. In parallel, editorials experienced either de- or reiterated hierarchization stemming from working in crisis. Key professional challenges included circumventing censorship, financial struggles, and losing access to domestic informants. Adaptive and maladaptive mechanisms ranged from being psychosocial to technical. Adaptation overall was reflected in strengthened corporate solidarity and in exiled media outlets’ joint moral-legal responsibilities for proxy-reporters