Contribution by ZDF/frontal: Russian Fighters/Deserters
Artyom Klyga
For prime time on German television channel ZDF. In German. With my participation.
At the beginning of the year, thanks to a lawyer friend of mine, I happened to meet Julia Wischnewska in Berlin. I told her about my work and my long-held desire to make a short film about Russian deserters for a wide audience. Not for a Russian audience (we already had that, and there wouldn’t be much new to say there), but for a German one. I saw it as another opportunity to raise awareness of the issue among both the German public and politicians.
Julia and I briefly discussed the idea, I told her who we could meet in Armenia — and a month later she brought cameraman Konstantin Salomatin and producer Markus Thöß on board. The latter developed a complete concept and submitted it to ZDF — Germany’s second public broadcaster — for the magazine Frontal.
In March, we were in Armenia and spoke with Russian deserters with whom I had already been in contact. Parts of their stories and their current living situation in Armenia can now be seen in the film. In Berlin, I met with SPD member of Bundestag Frank Schwabe, who had already been working intensively on the situation of Russian deserters in exile in 2022—2023. He shared his assessments and spoke about the problem of travel documents for deserters in the EU — an issue we are continuing to work on.
This is my biggest media project for a foreign audience to date. I hope it will bring concrete political results in Germany. The film is in German — but I would of course be very happy to receive likes and reposts!