The cruel paradox of Ms Osetinskaya’s tenure at RBC is that success carried a death sentence. With a focus on business and a consciously even-handed style, RBC’s coverage reached an audience beyond Moscow’s marginalised liberals. Its journalism ultimately proved too visible and too autonomous for its own good. Yet as the Panama papers demonstrated, the desire to control information ever more often runs up against the reality of life in the internet age. The Kremlin won the battle, but free information may yet win the war.
