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DW Russian launches new vodcast 'We will survive'

"Our podcast is a close-up. Every person is a story, a path, a character (...). The war has affected everyone," says Artur Smolyaninov, host of the new Russian-language vodcast.

Russischer Vodcast „Переживем“ – Pereschiwjom | Artur Smolyaninow

"Переживем" - Pereschiwjom means "We will survive" in English. In it, he talks to his guests about what motivated them to leave Russia, how they built their new lives abroad and how they keep in touch with their old homeland.

After publicly criticizing the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russian actor Smolyaninov has been living in exile himself since 2022. In the vodcast, he interviews Russians who have changed their lives after experiencing the drastic impact the war against Ukraine had on their lives in Russia.

For example, Maria Kabysch, a Russian theater artist, stage designer and director, who shares in the first episode how she left Russia with her two sons and had to start from scratch in Latvia.

"Hundreds of thousands of Russians have left their country involuntarily in recent years. We want to address them with 'Perezhivyom', but also their relatives, their friends, their ex-colleagues who are still in Russia," says Christian F. Trippe, Head of DW’s Eastern Europe Department.

Smolyaninov knows that he has had a lot of luck and few difficulties in his new start thanks to his fame, but that many people, especially creative artists, do not feel the same way: "I thought that we should at least create a virtual community, a community of people in which they have the opportunity to talk about themselves." It was also about using the vodcast to "inspire, to give hope".

"Переживем" is recorded in Studio Riga and adds a personal touch to the Russian video podcast portfolio: the vodcast combines topics of culture, society and personal destinies with the political context in which they take place. Previous DW Russian productions include the live-streamed DW Novosti Show, in which Olga Tikhomirova analyzes the most important events of the week, vodcast "Geofactor", in which Roman Goncharenko sheds light on security policy issues, as well as "Frau, vui kuda?",  a vodcast for all topics related to gender and feminism by Natalia Smolentceva and Kseniya Safronova.

The new vodcast is available on DW на русском on YouTube, on dw.com and as a podcast on all common platforms.