[1][17] On March 12, 2014 the owner, Alexander Mamut, fired the Editor-in-Chief Galina Timchenko and replaced her with Alexey Goreslavsky.

[18] The employees of Lenta.ru issued a statement that the purpose of the move was to install a new Editor-in-Chief directly controlled by the Kremlin and turn the website into a propaganda tool.

[19] Dunja Mijatović, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, referred to the move as a manifestation of censorship.

[20] Galina Timchenko, together with a team of around 20 journalists who resigned from their jobs at Lenta.ru, started the new internet newspaper Meduza.

Articles were published regarding the mass killing of civilians, looting, abandoned bodies of Russian troops, the destruction of Mariupol, censorship, governmental lies to relatives of deceased soldiers, attacks against the freedom of press, and more.

Lenta.ru journalists Egor Polyakov and Alexandra Miroshnikova have stated that they were the authors of these articles, and reported that they now need new jobs, lawyers, and political asylum.