Putin's War at Home

>> President Putin making clear he will not back down in Ukraine calling up hundreds of thousands of men, a move that prompted widespread protests.

(Speaking Russian) >> NARRATOR: In a special presentation from inside Russia... >> The risks for all the contributors making this film are immense.

>> NARRATOR: Stories of activists and journalists refusing to stay silent... >> What joins them together is that they are brave enough to confront the government.

(Speaking Russian) >> NARRATOR: Risking arrest and imprisonment... (Speaking Russian) >> The people seem to be very angry... >> NARRATOR: In the face of Vladimir Putin’s crackdown on critics of the war in Ukraine.

>> Vladimir Putin issued a stark warning to the people he called scum and traitors.

>> We do have a lot of people who care about our country falling apart.

>> NARRATOR: Now on FRONTLINE, “Putin’s War at Home.” >> It's important that the world knows that the resistance is ongoing and there are people who disagree wiwth the current regime.

>> (speaking Russian): >> We knew from the very beginning that the risks for all the contributors and all the team making this film are immense.

>> NARRATOR: Vasiliy Kolotilov is a Russian journalist.

He has been working with "Frontline" inside Russia to document the lives of those who oppose the war in Ukraine.

President Putin has signed laws that crack down on protest of the war and independent reporting of its human cost.

Many news outlets have shut down.

>> The regime has become much more authoritarian.

People here are very scared to talk.

But there are still people who don't want to be silent.

>> (speaking Russian): >> I wanted to give a voice to the people who are opposing the war that Russia started.

They're opposing the repressions that are going on in the country.

(shutter snaps) The Russian government wants people to think that all Russians are supporting the war.

It's not true, it doesn't work like that.

>> (speaking Russian): >> (chanting in Russian): >> (speaking Russian): >> (chanting, screaming) >> (speaking Russian): >> NARRATOR: Independent polls show that a majority of Russians say that they support the war, but there's a large, often silent population that doesn't.

Putin's laws have effectively made it a crime to oppose the war.

>> (speaking Russian): >> NARRATOR: Amid the crackdown on dissent, Sasha, an artist, found a new way to express her opposition.

>> (speaking Russian): >> (cheering and applauding) >> (speaking Russian): >> NARRATOR: Sasha has been in jail awaiting trial ever since her arrest.

Two journalists working in this remote region of Siberia have agreed to talk.

Since the war began, they have been reporting on Russian military deaths, despite a national ban on doing so.

>> What they're doing is exactly what the Russian government doesn't want journalists to do.

They travel around their region to document the deaths of Russian soldiers in Ukraine.

>> (speaking Russian): >> I'm actually surprised to see them not in jail.

(man claps) >> (speaking Russian): >> (speaking Russian): >> (speaking Russian): >> (speaking Russian): (air raid siren blaring) (guns firing) (explosions pounding) >> (speaking Russian): (explosion pounds) >> (speaking Russian): >> (speaking Russian): >> NARRATOR: The area around Lake Baikal is home to an ethnic minority, the Buryats.

The Russian military draws heavily from this area.

The reporters showed us footage they filmed just over a month after the invasion.

The bodies of Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine were being taken for burial.

>> MAN (speaking Russian): >> WOMAN (speaking Russian): >> NARRATOR: Military deaths are classified as state secrets in Russia, and the government rarely releases figures.

>> (speaking Russian): >> NARRATOR: Olga and Elena learned that a nearby sports complex was being used as a funeral hall.

They managed to get inside and film.

(priests chanting) >> (speaking Russian): (band playing Marche Funèbre) >> NARRATOR: Olga and Elena reported the names of the dead soldiers in their website.

They also wrote about the impact of the war on the local community.

The region is estimated to have one of the highest casualty rates from the war in the country.

The government blocked Russians from accessing the website, claiming the journalists were spreading "inaccurate information."

>> (speaking Russian): >> NARRATOR: But the journalists continued their investigation into military deaths in Ukraine.

They began building a database of hundreds of Russian fighters from this area killed in the war.

>> (speaking Russian): >> NARRATOR: Another opponent of the war has agreed to talk to Vasiliy.

She posts about life in Russia on TikTok.

>> I have seen a few of the police cars passing by, so maybe there is not a protest going on today.

Uh, I'm not sure.

>> She's against Putin.

She's against the, the war.

She tries to tell the Western audience what's actually happening in Russia.

>> The first thing that suffers during a war is truth.

(dog barks) The truth is something that lost its meaning completely.

On the fourth of March, all the big independent channels started to close down.

They started silencing everyone.

>> (speaking Russian) >> It felt fairly apocalyptic.

Everyone was saying that an iron curtain is coming down on Russia.

>> NARRATOR: Russian users have been banned from uploading content on TikTok since early March.

But Natalia, who's asked us not to use her full name, has found a way to get around the restrictions.

>> Hello, everyone, my name's Natalia.

>> ♪ Pass the dutchie 'pon the left hand side ♪ ♪ Pass the dutchie 'pon the left hand side ♪ >> (yelling) >> I'm one of the few people inside of Russia who have been documenting what's been happening since the beginning of the so-called special military operation because I felt like, um, no one was speaking at all.

>> NARRATOR: She uses a British SIM card for her phone that she's kept from her years living in London.

>> My TikTok channel is called ironcurtainlyf.

I did not expect to go viral at all.

Fingers crossed I'm not going to get sent to gulag.

>> NARRATOR: Russians are blocked from viewing her posts, which is why she thinks she hasn't been arrested.

But she gets tens of thousands of views outside the country.

>> You know, the screws are being tightened.

You get sentences for, you know, smallest thing now.

You cannot legally protest.

>> NARRATOR: Natalia's stance on the war has put her in opposition not only to Putin's government, but to members of her own family.

>> My mother watched more and more state TV.

(TV playing) She got very different views, that Ukraine is planning on attacking us.

>> (singing in Russian): >> I have to watch because you have to know your enemy.

>> (singing in Russian): >> Happy Crimea Day!

Eight years ago, Russia annexed Crimea-- or how we say, "Motherland freed Crimea."

Cry me a river.

And behind me there is a national holiday celebration in Moscow that is live-streamed on state TV.

The tag line of the event is "For victory and for the world without Nazis."

The level of ridiculousness is escalating really fast.

(crowd cheering) >> Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin!

>> (speaking Russian): (crowd chanting "Rossiya!")

>> We actually do have a lot of people who care about our country falling apart and becoming the next North Korea.

It's important that the world knows that the resistance is ongoing and there are people who disagree with the current regime.

>> All of our characters' voices are significant.

But what joins them together is that they are brave enough to confront the government.

>> NARRATOR: Vasiliy, the Russian journalist working with us, is on his way to the southwest of the country to meet another outspoken critic of the war, a law professor whose parents live in Ukraine.

>> Roman is really worried about his parents, because his parents are from Ukraine and they are in Ukraine right now.

(phone ringing out) >> (speaking Ukrainian): >> NARRATOR: Since the start of the war, Roman has uploaded videos to YouTube of his conversations with his mom.

She and his dad are living under Russian bombardment in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Nikopol.

>> (speaking Russian): (exhales) NARRATOR: The video showed destroyed Russian tanks.

They had been attacked by Ukrainian forces as they tried to advance on the capital Kyiv.

>> NARRATOR: He was charged under Putin's new laws, accused of spreading false information about the armed forces.

>> (speaking Russian): >> (speaking Russian): (sirens blaring in distance) >> NARRATOR: Olga and Elena, whose website was blocked after they filmed the coffins of Russian soldiers, have moved their office to keep one step ahead of the authorities.

>> (speaking Russian): >> NARRATOR: The reporters are trying to piece together the truth about the number of soldiers from their region in Siberia who've died.

Their database of casualties has grown to over 400 names and has become a unique resource for the international media.

Olga and Elena know they're taking a risk.

>> (speaking Russian): >> (speaking Russian): >> (speaking Russian): >> NARRATOR: They've gotten a lead about the death of a young man from a remote village.

They are looking for his grave.

>> (speaking Russian): >> (speaking Russian): >> (speaking Russian): (wind blowing) >> (sighs): Oi!

>> (speaking Russian): >> (breathes deeply) (speaking Russian): >> (speaking Russian): (gate rattles) >> NARRATOR: The date of his death and the flag of Donetsk, a contested region of Ukraine, both suggest he died in the war there.

But there's no mention of any military unit.

MUTOVINA and TRIFONOVA: >> NARRATOR: The reporters continue their investigation.

Back in St. Petersburg, there's a new development for Vasiliy to film.

A bail hearing for Sasha, who was arrested for replacing supermarket labels with messages protesting the war.

>> The biggest problem is that you don't really know what's going to happen, because all the laws are really vague.

To me, operating in this kind of environment is feeling pretty difficult.

You kind of start getting a little bit paranoid.

(speaking Russian): >> NARRATOR: Near the court, he meets Sasha's partner.

Sonia says she's given up her job as a pharmacist to work for Sasha's release.

A Moscow city councilor was recently sentenced to seven years in prison on charges similar to Sasha's.

>> (speaking Russian): >> (speaking Russian): >> (speaking Russian): >> NARRATOR: Sasha's lawyer hopes the judge will release her on bail.

(people talking in background) >> (speaking Russian): >> (cheering and applauding) >> (speaking Russian): >> (speaking Russian): (people talking in background) >> (speaking Russian): >> NARRATOR: They wait five hours to hear the judge's decision.

(people talking in background) >> (speaking Russian): JUDGE and SASHA: JUDGE: >> (speaking Russian): >> (speaking Russian): >> (speaking Russian): SUBBOTINA: >> (speaking Russian): >> (speaking Russian): >> (speaking Russian): >> (speaking Russian): ♪ ♪ (guns firing in video) >> (speaking Russian): (explosions pounding in video) (reporter speaking Russian) (gunfire rattling in video) >> (speaking Russian): >> NARRATOR: In Nikopol, Roman's parents have been enduring months of Russian shelling.

Roman is one of an estimated 11 million people living in Russia with relatives in Ukraine.

(guns firing in video) (phone ringing) >> (murmurs) MOTHER and MELNICHENKO: (window and blinds rattle) MELNICHENKO: MOTHER: Uh-huh.

MELNICHENKO: MOTHER: MELNICHENKO: MOTHER (chuckling): MELNICHENKO: MOTHER: (Melnichenko murmurs) MOTHER: (chuckling) MELNICHENKO: Uh-huh.

MELNICHENKO: (sobbing) (speaking Russian) (horn honks) (patriotic song begins) >> (singing in Russian): >> This is the...

This is the zed.

The zed is everywhere.

The main symbols of Russian patriotism.

We are a military country now.

Our whole personality is military.

The Union of Mothers set up this memorial to remember their dead sons.

The ones that were not confirmed by the government, whether they are dead, alive, or missing, and this is what happened to this memorial the very next day, because in Russia, you're only allowed to grieve if your government allows you to do so.

>> NARRATOR: For Natalia, the war has had a personal cost.

She says her father's cancer treatment was stopped because sanctions imposed on Russia led to a shortage of chemotherapy drugs.

>> My dad had cancer.

He was in a hospice for the last month of his life.

And... Well, then he died.

Yeah.

Very often, my TikTok, I get comments saying that there are no good Russians and the only good Russians are dead Russians.

So in that sense, I guess he did become the best Russian of them all, didn't he?

>> NARRATOR: Thousands of miles away, near Lake Baikal, Olga and Elena are continuing to report on the deaths of Russian soldiers.

They're looking for relatives of the fighter whose grave they had discovered.

>> (speaking Russian): >> NARRATOR: They have an address.

>> (speaking Russian): >> (speaking Russian): (dog barking, man talking) (dogs barking, women reacting) >> NARRATOR: When they find the house, they're invited inside.

>> (speaking Russian): (talking in background) >> NARRATOR: She tells them that he died fighting as a sniper in Ukraine.

>> (speaking Russian): >> (speaking Russian): >> (speaking Russian): >> NARRATOR: She said he'd been in trouble with the police and a year before the invasion, ran off to join a pro-Russia militia group in Donetsk.

>> (speaking Russian): (dogs barking, growling) >> NARRATOR: She gave them the name of another relative who lives in the area.

>> (speaking Russian): >> (knocks on fence) >> (speaking Russian): (all talking in background) >> (speaking Russian): >> NARRATOR: She showed them a posting about his death on a messaging app used by militia fighters.

>> (speaking Russian): >> (speaking Russian): >> Mm.

>> (speaking Russian): >> (speaking Russian): >> NARRATOR: She received this video from his fellow fighters they said it showed where they found him.

>> (speaking Russian): >> NARRATOR: The Russian military didn't repatriate his body.

So his family asked for help from a veterans' group.

>> (speaking Russian): MUTOVINA and TRIFONOVA: AUNT: MUTOVINA: AUNT: MUTOVINA: TRIFONOVA: AUNT: TRIFONOVA: AUNT: >> NARRATOR: In September, the Russian defense minister stated that 5,937 Russian soldiers had died so far in the war.

U.S. officials estimate the figure is around four times that.

The reporters say that casualties like the dead militia fighter are hidden victims of an unnecessary war.

>> (speaking Russian): >> (speaking Russian): >> NARRATOR: Sonia has been separated from Sasha since April.

To stay in touch, Sasha has been sending her drawings of life in prison.

>> (speaking Russian): >> (speaking Russian): >> (speaking Russian): >> NARRATOR: In Moscow, a human rights organization exhibited the drawings, part of an effort to highlight the detention of opponents of the war.

>> (speaking Russian): >> NARRATOR: Roman is increasingly concerned that his 13-year-old daughter is growing up in a Russia where dissent is not tolerated.

Since the invasion, children have been targeted with military propaganda.

>> (singing in Russian): >> (speaking Russian): >> (singing in Russian): >> (speaking Russian): >> (singing in Russian): >> (speaking Russian): >> (chanting in Russian) (sirens blaring) >> NARRATOR: In September, Putin announced what he called a "partial mobilization," the first time since World War II that Russia had imposed a widespread military draft.

>> There are hundreds of people out in the streets today, and even more police.

There is a protest inside all of Russia against mobilization and war.

(man talking on loudspeaker) But people seem to be very angry and very motivated to continue being on the streets.

>> (shouting) >> We have at least 96 detained in St. Petersburg.

And overall, I think it's over 300 now.

We were just in the square, where they were about to close off the entire protest, and we just got out.

I, I do feel scared, my heart is definitely pumping.

>> NARRATOR: The reporters in Siberia, Olga and Elena, say they were accused of posting anti-war stickers and arrested.

>> (speaking Russian): >> NARRATOR: After they were released, they fled to the neighboring country with serval relatives.

>> (speaking Russian): >> NARRATOR: After five months in jail, Sasha is back in court.

>> (speaking Russian): >> (cheering and applauding) >> NARRATOR: She is officially charged with spreading false information about the Russian armed forces.

She faces up to ten years in prison if convicted at trial.

>> (speaking Russian): >> (speaking Russian): >> WOMAN: >> OFFICER: >> (speaking Russian): >> (speaking Russian): >> (speaking Russian): >> This morning, Russia's scrambling to contain the chaos, as the wave of men fleeing the draft shows no signs of slowing, video appearing to show miles of cars lined up at the border to neighboring countries.

New video appearing to show... >> NARRATOR: Vasiliy is now worried he will be drafted unless he flees Russia.

>> This partial mobilization means that the situation is getting worse, and they might close the borders.

I need to leave as soon as possible.

This story about opposing the war became a story about the future of Russia.

Will the future be authoritarian or will it be democratic?

This is the fight at hand.

The story of the people who are trying to confront the regime is still going to continue.

Sadly, now, we're going to be looking at this from a distance.

♪ ♪ >> Go to pbs.org/frontline for a Q & A with the producers on making this film.

>> The biggest problem is that you don’t really know what’s going to happen because all the laws are really vague.

>> See all of our documentaries on the war in Ukraine and more of our ongoing coverage of the conflict.

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Captioned by Media Access Group at WGBH access.wgbh.org.

>> For more on this and other Frontline programs visit our website at pbs.org/frontline.

♪ ♪ Frontline's "Putin's War At Home" is available on Amazon Prime Video.