people coming off of heroin within 28 days. it is a revolving door. i hear a lot of people talking about obama care. obama careonly get insurance if they have done their taxes last year. i know very few drug addicts focused on doing their taxes. host: who is paying for that treatment? caller: i wrote a book which details my journeys -- my journey through my daughters drug addiction. host: i apologize but we are out of time. thank you for sharing your story. we might have time to get kenny the -- time to

here.enny in the her for thei did research patches for people with chronic pain. i saw people completely frustrated i the war on drugs. families -- the only drug free to -- drug been the solution that the government and the county can support. these drug problems are moving from the white neighborhoods.

realize -- people have criticized the communities. but that is the problem. host: thank you for calling in. thank you for everybody who participated in this program. happy easter weekend. 2014, and martyr -- and together with partners -- by december 2015 the monthly read -- monthly -- ership saw with 320,000 app downloads and followers on social media.

-- is an editor and journalist at mendoza. she is a former editor in chief at the online media outlet -- .he is a columnist she started her career of journalism in the mid-1990's as a correspondent for the state for the capital magazine. she is the author of "am i a bad is -- " which ae recently launched groundbreaking babysitting training services. this is a very creative couple. , can i see aceed readsf hands of who here

on a regular basis. me, actually for we are thinking about it yesterday. just a year and a half ago this didn't exist. it is actually the first thing i thing i reachst for when i wake up in a morning. not only has he succeeded in creating the information product with news i can use, i can trust it will deliver the news i need, it has also altered my routine. i used to do yoga first thing in the morning. i want to hear how you managed to do it. >> thanks a lot. it is truly an honor to be here.

try to explain about medusa and why we did it and what happens to us. experience to make. when it is impossible to make any media -- it is really fun. our history begins like this. this is poland. isdid work there, but this -- what should you do react ou need to buy furniture.

when i am here for four or five -- , and then i ask where is it? i say i can show you google maps. i think for everybody in the world, the place looks like this. we are not here, but we are there. minds oft exist in the people in the world. we're -- long trip because

we have no ikea in lot -- in lot via -- in latvia. here is now editor in chief of medusa. nobody else can buy furniture. i can say this is quite an experience. when you drove 600 kilometers -- and seeikea sign an ikea sign, it is quite an experience. we didn't have enough money to buy all the furniture we needed. ikea a second time. this is the history of how we are making media.

-- theh 2014, it was largest in europe. it reached 2 million units. it was in the middle of this crisis. the editorial and from the media and technological department, everybody just -- i actually didn't walk there. i was editor in chief and project director.

they came to me and said let's make something. it was very interesting and we start to think of what we want to make. we got some ideas. quite an impossible adventure, launched in 1999. this is a new era, we need something else. it is not interesting to make the same thing for the second time. we need to make something bulletproof. media,ed to make some which is hard to block. we understood we need something to block.

and we understand we have not so much time. we have some people from editorials. right now everybody is talking about launching something out fast. we need to move quickly, make something new and where something very strong. understand we want to make less content, not more content. maybe a little more than 200 pieces of content. facebook.have all of us have twitter and some other social networks.

the main part of our job is to make this huge information noise -- we need to pick very important things. it was an active moment of this war. our job is maybe not to produce nuclear content. it is more what is to check what happens around us. we like facts, not opinions. when something happens, nobody will understand what happens around, if some of you try's to predict what happens next, the on the is over analysis

long distance. and we don't like this opinion because it doesn't help. we don't have information to make this analysis. want to be just as objective as we can. nobody understands news. when the media published some news content, we are ready to talk about it. people don't understand what happens. we can give them a context but we don't understand. when they use editors and think that people are in this context, .hey know what happens before

it is our job to make everything clear. we need to be everywhere. we need to be everywhere our readers are. it is an endless list of platforms. this helps us in blocking problem.

i think we are -- on the it was good saw blows from media. it is just about the global world. we can be anywhere. just understood we need to be out of the country. we made a long list. it was just a little bit longer.

it should be not so far away from moscow. think portugal is a nice country. is warm and not so expensive but we can start our walk at 5:00 in the morning. we have 20 editors. we need to pay them salaries. if we move them to israel, it is warm, but a really expensive country. our budget is too big and we can afford this country.

so bye-bye israel. >> i think you underestimate -- >> we underestimate many things. you need to build a company in tooher country and hire many foreign employees. there are not many who like this process. bye-bye israel, portugal. then we saw the objective media. we saw it is not cool to make media in a country which is actually at war with russia. bye-bye ukraine.

no lithuania. and this is latvia. via -- inin lot atvia -- there is nothing to do except to walk. is good because you can walk anytime. -- mployees it is small media. you move them to another country, they make something big and change everything in their lives.

these are designers. developers.or -- so everybody worked together. for media it was quite good. this was one thing, one product. that is why everybody is working together. this helps us make everything together. we make just not the articles -- some new performance, some new content and they will tell you something about it later. of course it is news. -- this is our main

i think every media needs to have a skeleton, a frame. is why people will visit you day by day. >> it is now my yoga in the morning. >> i think it is that yoga. this is our frame. to medusa, to know what happens in the world. i read in some new york times research, they said they called it something else. they said i need to check if the

world is still alive. they go to medusa and check. they just visit to check that the work is still ok. if you have this frame, the skeleton, then you can make anything around it. you can make anything. this is very important stuff for us. for example i had the general listed award. covering the ukrainian crisis

and covering the syrian crisis. proud they got this award. we have nothing to show you. you side on u.s. media right now. becausereally important it helps us to explain anything that happens in the world. we can explain anything from what happens when you are in a jail, what you need to do, and russia -- how we can leave with it. to figure out how to make

the perfect omelette. you can make an omelette and the next day you are in jail. we make much more difficult formats to produce. this is about economy. and this is a format which can be shot and built on. we have a story to run for economy. does he want something more about this? is -- and we don't know how much time the reader had for us. he can read it in one minute. you can read it in 50 minutes.

the news games, we have some new agenda and we make games about it. something like 50 games last year. things, can make such if your development department , you think about it together, you need to make it together. >> we actually called it house of cards. -- wenched it a week ago launched it a week and a half ago.

>> you know what happens next. you play with a computer. i have regards -- president of -- and, president of president of usa. ihave to choose which country should play. and i lose because it is -- putin gets a little bit more, so he is stronger.

now of course he won the last turn. lucky i have -- .f course i won play with -- i play with barack obama. even stronger than barack obama, so he wins again. and i have alexander. it is a tough play. and i have through sieve. have rusev.

the computer answers me with -- wins.mputer i have these, which i can share to a network. i have one more game. what is it? >> always late for important meetings. in summer he was around with the pope.

you can do anything with it. it is funny, but not useful. game.decided to make a it is a lot of code. so you have a lot of open source .ode changing mario and

and the -- >> we are changing mario for putin and the wife for -- >> we changed with the pope and mario with the putin. it took a day to rewrite the code and to redraw the characters. so we do such things that you don't know what to do with. alwaystrange putin is late. it means something. we ask him to stop doing such a thing. >> putin is late this time too. he is powerful and always late. we can talk about this every time he is late. we can make all the jokes about it.

a little bit of irony about it. >> two more examples if it is ok. there was a parking thing in moscow. three years ago you could park anywhere. in two years it has changed. every day there is not new rules no parking things. .e did a minesweeper

and one more as you know, the ruble -- a little crazy. you never know what happens with the oil price or ruble price or euro price, so there was crazy stuff going on every day. that is like some prices in are really low. >> for us. >> you can buy a car 30% cheaper than the europe car. you can buy xbox even cheaper then america. we did a crazy exchange game. and you a 3000 ruble should decide -- >> guide is napping.

that isis -- in line >> nothing. >> that is something carried ok, we will change it to $60. yes or no? yes or no? you need to decide quickly. no. it is bad because $60 is better than 3000 rubles. you just lost 1500 rubles. would you change it to [indiscernible] yes or no? >> yes. >> it is bad. that is like $30 now. >> $41. >> anyone, would you change it? would you? >> yes. >> good because it is like 17,000 rubles. plushen you need to decide

and you don't even know what a plus one, ¥8,000 -- >> ok, so. >> funny game. >> i will try to go to the next slide. sorry. make anyy to that we can. first of all, it is very interesting. every week, you make something new and you see how it works and what does not work. we can check it every week. we had the group strategy and i said, we had a strategy that we need to be bulletproof everywhere, and we are making it and we have some delays but we are making it. our new strategy is to make an

experiment because media constructs futures. they construct a new language, they construct how to talk about reality about this, and there theseny ways to make talks, and nobody knows what will be the next thing and you need to adjust prove your theory -- two just prove your theory. if you fail with some experiment, it is a cheap fail for you. a cheap mistake. make only big strategies and if you only make things and sometimes you make something and it is happy year and it fails, it can fail, so it is a really expensive mistake for you.

we cannot afford it, so i think this theory works. million a month and we downloads, 400,000 pushed subscribers, and if this happens, we just push to the browsers and this is great. if you have something important to tell to the readers, you can do it, even in the absence, they will see. is a weapon this but it is a great instrument. you have half a million followers and we have 45,000 daily used by subscribers, and these newsletters, so you get a newsletter and there are some headlines and

about afrom people, but e-mails, we saw inboxes, and when you get an e-mail, you want to get the mail from only humans. you, so weill be for started this daily newsletter to be written by people. so this is a product, too, and we write it every day. this will be a sad newsletter if we have some crazy day where you get many jobs. websitefind this on a a smallmail, but it is project, which you can only read the newsletter. read news need to

every day. this is funny, sad, but they have some emotion when they read these newsletters. is 300,000 people, they read more than three times a week, so this is our moscow audience. this audience allows us -- and i think this allows us because we make something that they did not see anywhere else and it speaks to them, so they get this newsletter and we answered their mail and they like that it is written by humans. if we make the mistake, they say, they are humans and this is good. is 100% organic, so we have no money from any markets. an f because we

have no money for it and people just came to us. in the experience, we have may be in 1.5 years, we will think this is wrong, but i doubt it. first of all, we cannot always be serious. we are in a real serious situation and we need to be over it. so 70% of our audience are international, so they leave the destination they by day, and ory cannot just visit something happens again. if you read for one

time, for the second time, you wonder, for the third time, you are an audience. as i said, you need to have a scenario of why they come to you every morning, every evening to make something. this is the best scenario, when you are in a good mood. this scenario goes, i am in a good mood. i need to make i moved a little bit worse, i need to read the news, so that is scenario for the media. you need some other scenario, that is why when you go to "meduza," the news is 99% bad, but you need to just sometimes to laugh, to have irony, and we need to do it. media is like a guy. with a guy, he will talk only about politics, and he cannot always a serious. media is like a man, a guy.

you cannot always be serious. you cannot just be an interesting man, and that is why we need to make different stuff, not only being serious. it is the people. people will not read it. newse do not understand and we need to explain everything, and these people don't understand anything. it is really our problem. steped to explain step by every, every, every piece of the global policies or local policies. for example, we understood i think it was two months ago and there was conflict for five years, i think, and we write about syria every day. something happens there, there and i responded came there and we use reports, everything, but

we just understood that we were at it for years and other media rights it for five years, but most of our audience do not understand about syria, nothing, and they read these, all of and what iss interesting in syria three years or four years ago, when everybody rd explained everything about syria, they are just thinking right now when camengs begin, when taylor three europe, when refugees came to you. now, they have no other options to understand what happened in syria because every media was explained five years ago and this is their problem, not of the reader, so we need to

stop, make five steps away and we need to explain it. this helps everybody because right now, it helps. if we do not make it, you do not need to leave the country or make some other media out of the country, yes, you can make it but what is the reason? we make this media for a huge audience and we need to make it for a huge audience. the people in our country will love us and read us and will think about that, so these are the options to fight not only drop again to let this point of view, which is drastic for us. it is really important to read because it is published as part of my job, but it is really important that the media should

earn the money on its own. media is something which can view with the audience and it is a main part of the media job, so we know our audience, we can work with us and we can renew it, so that is why we can make it and this is a part of our job. we can not only forget about this, but there will be other guys who make it but, no, we need to do that, too. that is a part of media as a product and we think about media as a product at large. this is i think the most important thing that we are against. because offor me english, yes, but this is our main stretch, the main stretch for russia, countries that are

thinking about russia, and the main thing is that we are like an island and we are great, and there is not a war. else, they are traitors, paid his, and people do not understand the country and the world. arele in the world interested in russia and russian themes. it is a great country, sometimes it is not so great and sometimes it is a horrible country and we make mistakes but it is a part of the world. talking about media and exile, we are not media exile, we just see no borders. we make it from any date, it is a global war. it is much more easier for us to manage the media from russia right now. not united world

russia global world and -- i think somebody asked me, what is your public statement and i think this is what it is made. this is very important. this is really -- there are no borders and that is the proof. thank you. [applause] now, i think we have some questions. for youryou so much comments. i went to ask you if there is you, as ahat journalist, specifically as a writer and editor, if there is something you would like to comment on based on what ilia talked about. >> [indiscernible] >> what is the video experience of this process? >> i support it. it is a part of my political statement, but i think that i

can comment a little bit on what he said. the think is, i find it interesting that we have a with us and we can talk with them and we can do it has alwaysthan been. i don't know in america, but in russia, the media, if you need to change something on the website, something, it would there ares, and people who think you are stupid and that they are boring and withwe were not connecting the people, and now we are. can do new technology things so we try to and do this kind of changes in our

editorial and creative thinking the same. always come with the new ideas and the new features and new formats. talked about the question of syria, yes, and there are a lot of things we are talking about but nobody understands, so we have a new format called [indiscernible] and they usually allow me to write them because i'm not very good that serious topics. >> i'm joking. [laughter] >> no, i am joking. you are talking seriously. never mess with that, please. so a shameful question about syria and i really don't know. america just pow and kill

all the isis people because they are afraid of them where we do the same thing with the mass that is in america, and from our point of view. we cannot understand the things. why all the politics don't make the main -- >> i think the americans are large tourists. >> so, why is it ok to have a gun? is it about race? is it about young children in school? or transgender? things you talk about but you don't understand and you have a lot of shameful questions. it is not ok to ask them serious, but we do this special for them. testshad a test, a lot of . like, there was news that in school and something like judges here, they examined the girl

talked about poem and she ,retends it is more than some the very serious part in russia, rapper and a schoolteacher did not recognize wasand it got that it malicious, and it was a huge thing because in russia, that is something to understand. that, i really good point or some kind of [indiscernible] it was interesting. of tests like that isut families and how it something you should ask.

when there is a small company and where's the development with same and we are all in the small flat. we can do a lot more than you think and you can do with 20 people, so i think that is something. >> thank you so much. i think what is really important from what i am hearing you say, you manage to create a real connection with the reader, and i think this is created and the exchange we see between you, it is things you can see, the real creative process. >> you feel into. >> of course, like you are part of it. i want to ask, we will go to questions in the audience in a moment, but i want to ask you a question that is something that

a lot of people fear and think about a lot. that is the question about, how do we counter russian propaganda? it is something people have been thinking about for several years and how do we organize it and maybe sometimes people think of "meduza" as a force that counteracts the propaganda, so what are your thoughts on that? ilya: we have these conversations a lot and they are popular conversations in europe aret now because they russians in european countries and it is a problem, but i think that the counter propaganda issue is a real issue. is from the government and it causes propaganda.

, but if you are a main andt, it is a for a- it is a main enemy journalist for pr, so i think if we are thinking about this, well, it think about how to make this propaganda and there we have huge problem. this counter how propaganda will breach the russian not be as, so if you make propaganda, you need to make a decision. and you need to be better than propaganda, so you have to have at least so much money, and this is really huge money, so this is what they really think about television. and doing things that any other

be producing so and thisy as russians is a part of prussian states. that russianm is audience watching the russian tv, they have tv shows in russian and russian tv shows about love, something, and what happens in their life and the tv shows are made in russia and shows onnteresting russians and played by russians, so they are watching television shows about themselves. the second reason why they watch the tv is the news. you can just make the news but you have to make everything, and you can make it from the u.s., europe, except russia. actually, you can make it from

ukraine because the tv shows are ukrainian but now we have some problems but still. the third problem is, ok, for example, you get this money from somewhere and you get these people which will make this television for the national news in russia, and you have russian heroes on these tv channels and you don't know what they get because they are in russia, too, so you make this great tv channel, expensive, fantastic, great picture like channel one or channel two, so here is the question, how do you reach the audience? in can reach the audience ia and i thinktv it is really good because these people need the russian tv channels. in latvia right now, there is a

major problem for information with lativians and russian butuage people in latvia, they watch russian tv and they don't have an option to watch any other tv. russian people are bad in foreign languages. everyone knows that. i don't know why, but that is not the reason not to talk with them in their own language. if you want to reach them, you have to do it, so you can make some russians in europe, israel, but you cannot reach russian audience in russia. one of the be buttons on the remote and these buttons are not available for so i don'teurope,

know how. a really long cancer. >> i will -- a really long answer. >> i will add. this propaganda is fake, something that never happened and something that was never meant to be. the only way you can do real counter propaganda is to affect opinions, like ilya said, so we have something called hot check, and sometimes when they talk, utin had an open line with the russians, and we just did a fact check, like you do in media in america, and we just put like a feature, and we always do this with the words.

we just try to say or tell you -- was it or was it not happening? -- i think only way that is our only way to deal with that. and it basically competes with entertainment formats and that is what you guys are doing. as go to audience questions. we have microphones. bright here in the front. ok, that is fine. thank you for an interesting presentation. --"meduza" dotion have trouble covering russia? i know you did an interesting investigative piece, but has back on harder or what is the

process of covering on the ground reporting from russia? we have three special correspondents in russia right now. they work there and i cannot say they have problems with it but the main problem for russia media, it affects different thisries, so for example, is a huge problem for you as a journalist. if you are a journalist in russia, some main problems have problems in the media and there are different ways to view with media by state authority, so the main russian way is to deal through an editor or editing chief. if you are a journalist, you can make your work -- if you are a making you're pieces, it is a huge possibility

that you will get huge problems, so there is not so much dangerous things in russia. i think if you write something in's family or his wealth, yes, and i think that is the main dangers inc.. our job right now to some have problems in teaching a -- problems. two weeks ago, there was a big problem. yes, it is going to happen, but our special reporters have different issues. the former soviet union countries and that is what they have. >> there are two things.

you need it when you go to somewhere dangerous, and the second thing is information. in russia, officials and people do not like to talk to the journalists. we don't have statistics on anything like adoption radians or something -- you don't have can'ttics and officials just refuse your interest or your questions. it is just -- oh, i did not want to talk to you and the people like to go to tv shows and you're going to be popular or something. they don't like to tell their stories because they don't know what will go out of it. or theyey are neighbors will look at them strange or something.

there are two things. if you are braver or you do not need it and if there is a think when you don't need to have a corporations,l and you can make people talk to you, i will be ok, but there are a lot of things you can do. was aand a great example couple of months ago. there was a really good russian the source who wanted to remain anonymous, declined to answer, and this is how russian media works. they have people who want to be anonymous -- izabella: and they don't talk.

ekaterina: it is crazy how it works in russia. >> hello. we have heard a lot in this country about the chinese firewall against the internet, but with regard to putin's russia, the impression is that as long as 80% to 90% of the people watch so be it television -- sorry -- they cannot care less what correspondents writes about the handful of people, 4 million being a handful in russian terms, watching what you say, so would you explain what options may exist for dissemination in the manner to use, the of the internet and so on? people watch television, you are absolutely right. travel back and forth

and statistics are not offered, but the internet right now is huge. it has an interesting reputation, russian internet. from the transition free internet to the regulated internet by the state. and this is the unique transition. i don't know if we have had any other countries decide to do this before. internetsolutely the about five years ago, and now, we have tons of laws against internet and authorities have easy options to book anybody on internet, but the limit is huge and it grows fast. russian media right now is a good media and their

audience sounds like 20 million people. change,ant something to actually, he don't need the majority. you don't need an extremely big glass of people if you want to change something. of peoplely big mass if you want to change something. sorry. i went to just talk about the blocking problem. they can be blocked any time. they don't need a decision to hadk us, actually, but we plan b's for -- it. a month before, the authority forked the main tracker russia. it was huge. there were tens of millions of people viewing this day by day because they get expired

content. tracker,nce of this after national blocking dropped it is a good precedent for us because the people now know how to unblock and block sites. this is why we don't have a chinese rule. chinese rule is serious. russian blocking is much more easier mechanism. tothink that they are trying beat the chinese war right now and we see some signs. where theyn chinese are making documents with them and they are buying some stuff, but i am not sure that russians can build it. you have to have much more effective faced to be building such things. maybe they build it, we don't know, but if there will be one,

it will be quite the situation. >> where you get your money from? who are you may competitors and sources?get the do have networks of journalists or agencies? ilya: we don't talk about money, sorry. it is very dangers for us to talk about money. as i said, the main options to deal with media from the state is to go to the investors and money is stock, so dangers to talk about. in media, we try to be 100% [indiscernible] 100% transparent but in this situation, it is impossible. the second question on where we get the news, we have journalists of course. a select platform

and we monitor. for example, received which tweets by the agency and media are more popular than regular and we just see, so we have some from the internet, and we are not the news agency or newspaper, so it is a thing for us to get our own news. as we said, we are trying to get the picture of the day and provided to the audience. competitors, yes -- we are talking about audience, so they [indiscernible] not too much, but we have capital with media right now in russia, so we will see. if we are talking about

monetization, we have all the media markets in the media which , sonot been thinking about if they are talking about our money, they are our competitors, too. thank you. right there in the middle. >> hi. i am one of the editors of our website. i know personally about the running independent media in russia. i appreciate your work, really, but i have one question. wasier this month, there russian video and it gathered russian regions of

russia and from abroad and it was on voice of america, many others, but there were many disciplines like scholars, politicians, and there was media from there. ilya: there was a huge audience. >> yes, and i was surprised that the mainstream media in russia ignored this event "meduza, like -- like "meduza." izabella: if you get to the question. ilya: why do we have the event? yes, because it is really boring. free russia will say it one more time, ok, why do we need to hear it one more time? it is not interesting and all. this is what i said.

saysay it and say it and it, ok, we know that you think so. thank you. [laughter] that is what is interesting. sorry. izabella: ok. >>hi. first of all, to complement to on your visual. you are following the american in support of keeping it simple and stupid, so thank you for that. the guy leftelieve and went to london and try to reach back to russia with internet, but is an internet very much limited that only 20% of the city population has any access to internet? is it limited that much? ilya: with the citizens and the internet? but it know the numbers, is a huge.

i know that the main social networks we can prove these numbers, tens of millions each month, and i think it is something like 60 million or 70 million. , i think, but i of the city's, big cities, that use internet and everybody uses it. and easy to access and it is cheap. izabella: so i believe the of each or what is the percent of internet? i don't know, sorry, but we can talk about different audiences. so thisabout seniors,

is not about the riches but the technology education. my dad is 86 and he uses they spoke. he has a grandson who can show you how to use it and it is interesting in his life, but i mentioned that this represents that, but if you're talking under 40, it is subtle. izabella: right there. anna -- ilya: nice to meet you again. >> what is your policy regarding -- when your flat forms are drawn?

what do you do but that? ilya: what drawing i you talking about? we have no comment. >> no trolling? ilya: we have some trolls like the russian tv channels that visit on a regular basis, so if itneed to adjust, in riga, is not so far away. ekaterina: we lock our doors. ilya: i think that is the real troll. one report right now is that rigajournalist came oto from moscow and his main part was to find the reporters, and we don't know why because we just have a website, but he is trying to find this anywhere. at the end of the report, he found us. andhe just rings the bell

we opened the door and he says, we say,annel news and goodbye, this is the end of the report. now, we are waiting for the second report, but it is not yet -- ekaterina: we train our reporters and editors to sometimes go again. said to the, so i we are the sidewalk, inro the seven numeral apartment i -- we are in a seven group iga and this ro is our job. izabella: can you give us a general comment on the state of russian language journalism, well, not russian language journalism but the state of journalism in russia?

you hear sometimes that russian journalism is dead and there is so much censorship, pressure and no one is involved. ilya: i think it is still alive have think that we talented journalists, which are reportingh make good in the situation. this shows that they are professionals and they can work. we have no problems with higher people. we have money problems, of course, but we want to hire someone, we have no such problems. we are accounted with great journalists. not so much good editorials because i think there is a money problem, too, but the new media launched in russia, actually, day by day, every year, we see new media. sometimes not very

so the last 20 , we get area capital of schools and they are universities, in the editorials, give the media market good journalists. the problem is that many are changed or closed. right now, we have the problem with the was inside the media. cannot -- int, i can't say that we have a bad we haven around us, but good people we can higher, --

hire, but if we talking about in the next five years, we don't know what happens. but we don't know what happens tomorrow. -- i am: i in curious curious. "meduza" is published in russian and english. how big is that audience and how important is it for you and what are you trying to communicate to that audience? audience on the english side is much, much is more like we understand that there are not so interested who are in what happens in russia right now. it is only special students from these buildings and such buildings around the world and for journalists. readers will just use

and york times" right now there is some interesting stuff in russia. media toking this explain the professional committee on what happens in russia and to give the u.s. the options to publish our content just the thing -- sometimes, it is [indiscernible] and if it is published in the guardian or like that, so yes. izabella: i want to ask you this, what would you say is the biggest story out of prussia that foreign media -- out of russia that point media gets? and what would be the biggest

story coming out of the u.s. in the russian media that they do not get or underreport? ilya: the russian media do not get your stories at all. it is not a question. russian agenda is very isolated, so the main stories are from russia or ukraine or right now, syria. if russian media talks about europe or like the refugee problem or if they talk about -- actually, i don't know really about russian tv, so i don't know, but if you are media andout western or the what the media

tones of media right different different stuff. sometimes, we see some general line in the communities, and i think that sometimes, they are right about what happens in more for ait is much little bit different story and not so easy to understand in need ways and you really to live there and to talk with people underground and to understand its. sometimes, if they are purports new york,a and sometimes there are good reports. sometimes, you think, ok, if you

just write about russia, well, it is not just about reality. i can say about the general line they have different points of view. ok, a question in the back. thank you for the interesting report. what is the demographics of your readership and is it based on age and did they care about different issues, and which issues are important to younger people, older people, etc.? thank you. ilya: army not iensense under 35 main audience is under 35. what they care about -- i could answer the question shorts. there are many issues. suchn't have

[indiscernible] stuff that does not help us at all. we can adjust but we make and what they like. this is normal. i can say what we want them to like, so this is much more important for us. stuff trying to make more from around the world. we have no correspondence there, but we understand that we need to tell stories about what happens in the media in europe, and it can be not so much important stories, and not just horrible, but just what happens and what changes technology,

social problems, collections, everything. we just need to show people that. actually, they are not so much in an event that is very important to get them to deliver them to the international agenda. >> it sounds like it is a bit coincidental that you ended up in latvia, though a kind of response have you had from your work to the russian people there and more broadly in western europe, the u.s. and how is that different from the response in russia? ilya: we had no problems with ian authorities. it is really a new experience for us and you just make

business. for us, it is not bad. actually, when you talk about the business, it is great and we have no problems at all. manye this is not why people know about us from around the latviancause government is transparent. you are talking about russian-speaking community in latvia. i think they have so much problems and not just in "meduza ." us, are not thinking about not with media for them. i think they watch russian tv or read the local newspaper or something like that, but i don't

want to talk about problems with the russian community because it is not good for me to talk about it, but i think there are many problems and they are thinking latvia, we are not part of the problem. i heard some radio talk show in latvia about "meduza" one year tv, and there was a latvian channel and they talked about when they visited in the central talk aboutthey people and how they talked and it was just in moscow, so the same things, they have

everything like that. scandal about the, so like in russia, some, oh, my god. -- russia,said latvia is our country, but russia is our motherland or latvia is our homeland but russia is a motherland. say are from the homeland but they say awful things about the motherland. it was great actually. rights popular in latvia now. izabella: ok. wait for the microphone, please. you probably -- i am sure you

know that every american business has a mission statement. do you have one, and if you do, what is it? i forget all of them. i said something from that. we talk about facts a little more and for me right now, the the important part is global world. and as part of bush, we are part of the global world. -- as part of russia, we are part of the global world. izabella: what is the next big thing to do? what are you thinking about? what are your plans? ilya: we have huge plants but we don't talk about them in public. [laughter] we plan to have subproject with "meduza" this year, but we have

many experiments and some of those don't work. actually, we have some for our audience that uses every month, and i use that the couple times. months, we will launch something new. somethingverything or to which sometimes is better. izabella: perfect. thank you so much. we hope you join us again. thank you for a great presentation. [applause]

>> what is your website? meduza.io. >> like indian ocean. which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

[indiscernible] >> are you familiar with what i am talking? >> no. maybe i don't quite understand the story. >> well, the story reported gore has been reported before -- the story reported has been reported before. which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] -- [indiscernible] i use that as an example. the irony you are using [indiscernible]

[crowd noise] director cia and nsa michael hayden has a new book given with counterterrorism titled "american intelligence in the age of terror." people talk about it this afternoon at the american enterprise institute. we will have live coverage at noon eastern. the supreme court predicates on

the health care law contraceptive coverage mandate that is being challenged by order of nuns. they say the opt out provision violates their religious freedom. we will play the oral arguments tonight at the :00 eastern. -- 8:00 eastern. christopher bale talks about his new book on how anti-muslim fringe groups became mainstream. here is a preview. >> i will argue today that his phone number of anti-muslim organizations in the wake of the september 11 attacks captivated the media, specifically through emotional cues. although these organizations were once peripheral actors in the broader family of organizations try to shape public discourse about islam, they have raised more than $242 million. the most significant campaigns to shift american public opinion against islam. i will show you how the of exerted considerable influence

upon our counterterrorism , the recent wave of anti-sharia laws, and most how they have been hired to train our counterterrorism officials. although this occurs in the broader context of the so-called battle for hearts and minds we currently find ourselves in. surely, as i will show you at the end of my talk, these fringe ideas about these anti-muslim ideas are avid travelers. they get picked up by international media. they made either most significant harm by tarnishing the reputation of the united states which was once a paragon for religious freedom and making it seem as though the u.s. is in fact anti-muslim, thereby validating the claim of groups like isis that the u.s. is fundamentally at war with islam.

>> for fastener bale teaches at duke university and is author of houtman --errified: how french organizations became mainstream." -- that is to me up tonight at 9:30. >> the need for horses on the farm began to decline radically in the 1930's. the 1930's that they figured out how to make a rubber tire big enough to fit on a tractor. starting in the 1930's and the 1940's, you have this complete replacement of horses as the work animals on farms. i do believe one of my books on horses, i read that in the decade after world war ii we get something like a horse holocaust. they were no longer needed. we did not get rid of them in a pretty way. >> sunday night on q&a, robert

gordon discusses his book "the rise and fall of american growth," which looks at the growth of american standard of living and questions his future. >> one thing that often interest ofple is the impact superstorm sandy on the east coast back in 2012. that wiped out the 20th century for many people. the elevators no longer worked in new york. the electricity stopped. you cannot charge cell phones. you cannot pump gas into your car because of the data required electricity to pump the gas. electricity and the internal combustion engine to make modern life possible is something that people take for granted. >> sunday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span's q&a. attorney general loretta

lynch announced yesterday the indictment of seven iranian hackers working on behalf of the airline and government -- iranian government. ucted a series of cyberattacks. see it was joined by fbi director james komi -- comey. mrs. lynch: thank you for being here today. before i begin i know at the forefront of all of our minds continues to be the terrible events that unfolded in brussels earlier this week. let me take a moment to reiterate that the entire obama administration and the american people continue to stand with the people of belgium and the people of all of europe and the world in condemning these appalling attacks and in offering our support,

condolences and anyway we can. our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and loved ones, both those who perished and those who suffered. is inpartment of justice constant medication with our counterparts in belgium. we are committed to providing any and all assistance as we move forward together with unity and strength. i want to make clear that while we have received no specific credible threats to the homeland, we will continue to remain vigilant in order to ensure we can keep the american people safe from harm. thank you. i enjoy today by fbi director james comey, u.s. attorney for the seventh district of new york, and the assistant attorney general for national security john carlin. we are here to announcing major law enforcement action as part of our ongoing effort to disrupt cyber threats and to protect our national security. today we have unsealed an indictment against seven elected experienced hackers employed by

computer security companies working on behalf of the iranian government, including the islamic revolutionary guard corps. a federal grand jury in manhattan found that these seven individuals conspired together and with others to conduct a series of cyber attacks against the civilian targets and united states financial services industry. that in total or in all cost the victims tens of millions of dollars. 2013en late 2011 and new the united states financial sector suffered a large-scale coordinated campaign of distributed denial of service, or ddos attacks. this is a particular kind of cyber attack in which multiple compromised sources are used to cop -- target and overwhelm a single system. the service are 40 -- 46 financial institutions were flooded with traffic over the course of 176 days. as a result of this attack

online services were disrupted, hundreds of thousands of americans are unable to access bank accounts online. these attacks for relentless, they were systematic, and they were widespread. they threatened our economic well-being and our ability to compete fairly in the global marketplace, both of which are directly linked to our national security. we believe they were conducted with the sole purpose of underlining -- undermining the targeted companies and damaging the online operations of america's free markets. in addition to the actions we have detailed, one of the defendants is also charged with illegally obtaining access to a supervisory control and data acquisition system of the goldman dam in new york. at the time of this intrusion, it was undergoing maintenance. it had been disconnected from the system. that access fact, would of given this defendant the ability to control water levels, to control flow rates, and outcomes that clearly could

have posed a clear and present danger to the public health and safety of americans. i would like to thank the department of homeland security as well as the city for their assistance in managing that particular incident. the department of justice is sending a powerful message that we will not allow any individual, group or nation to sabotage american financial institutions or undermine the integrity of fair competition in the operation of the free market. through the work of our national security, the fbi, and the u.s. attorney's offices around the country we will continue to pursue national security cyber threats through the use of all available tools, including public criminal charges. and is today's unsealing makes clear, individuals who engage in computer hacking will be exposed for the criminal conduct an sought for average and -- apprehension and trial in american courts of law.

chargesblic criminal represent a groundbreaking step forward to addressing the threat. we will continue to use every tool at our disposal to investigate militias from -- malicious cyber actors so we can determine their country, government agency, organization and individuals involved and charge them publicly. i would like to thank all those who worked so diligently to bring the investigation to this point, including the targeted private companies and others in the private sector who were integral partners throughout the investigation. this case highlights the significance of what we can accomplish by working together. holding actors accountable and protecting the american people. at this time of introduced the director of the fbi, james comey who will give us additional details on today's announcement. mr. director? director comey: good morning ladies and him and. the challenge we face in

investigate cyber crimes is that cyber criminals often think it's a freebie to reach into the united states to do harm and steal what matters to us and we. they are halfway around the world and trying to use anonymous asian techniques -- ization techniques. no matter where they are we will try to reach them. and a matter how hard they work to hide their identity and their tradecraft we will find ways to pierce that shield and identify them. that is the message of this case. that is what it is so important we bring this case. i want to say thanks to the men and women of the fbi who worked very hard on this for a number of years across the country. what is also interesting about this case is we did virtually. we used the new york field office, cincinnati's, chicago, san francisco in phoenix. all working together we found a reasonably good u.s. attorneys office to work with. and together those offices

contribute into a single effort impose charges on people who thought before this it was a freebie. i went to thank the u.s. attorney's office and the national security here at justice, and the good folks at the fbi for stand after this. people often ask us these people are in iran so how are we going to get them? the world is small in our memories are long. we never say never. people like to travel for vacation or education. we want them looking over their shoulder both when they travel in with a sit at a keyboard. that's the message of this case. there is no place safe in this increasingly small world. i would like to introduce the u.s. district attorney. comeynk you director for introducing me and whom i entered the regional -- reasonably good u.s. attorney's office. the charges today respond directly to a coordinated cyber assault, on new york its

institutions, and its infrastructure. as has said, seven iranians charged. dozens of financial institutions at the heart of the u.s. financial system, many basic new york city. you have heard about the filtration of the goldman dam. you have also heard these were not ordinary crimes. a calculated attack directed by groups with ties to iran's islamic revolutionary guard corps and design with the goal of harming america. yorkefendants intended new to be the epicenter of harm because new york is the financial capital of the world. new york has always been the blue-chip target for those that want to harm our country. said, as the attorney general said, what occurred was a group of individuals, seven charged in the indictment. three were members of a particular security company called itset.

together within their respective companies engaged in what are known as ddos attacks. by putting malware on computers around the world and seizing control of the republican creating a bot net. and then launching attacks on at least 46 institutions around the country. they caused tens of millions of dollars in damage and harm to those companies. separately, you heard about the infiltration of the bowman dam. to our mind and represent a frightening frontier for cybercrime. although no actual harm resulted from that infiltration, the potential havoc of such a hack is scary to think about. there is good news and bad news. cyber criminals working with an entity with ties to the government of iran attack to

shut down parts of the u.s. financial system at times. they infiltrated infrastructure as a legend, taking over computers to control. those sound like plot lines of the movie but they are not. they are real crimes committed by real people in the real world. that is the bad news. the good news is that the department of justice and the fbi and other law enforcement agencies are on it and working hard every day. this announcement shows we will investigate any perpetrators who seek to harm united states of america. them, exposet them, and we will do everything in our power to apprehend and ultimately prosecute them in a court of law. we live in a world where devastating attacks on our financial system, our infrastructure, and our way of life to be launched from anywhere in the world. just with a simple click of the mouse. whether such an attack is motivated by greed or directed by an arm of a nationstate, it

must and will be met with a strong law enforcement response. beyond law enforcement what we can and will do -- the cyberattacks should serve as a wake-up call for everyone responsible for the security of our financial markets and a wake-up call for everyone interested regarding our infrastructure, our future security depends on heeding that call. out to thank some people. -- i want to thank some people. this is no ordinary crime or investigation. solving a criminal cyber case like this take a lot of people working in a lot of different places in close collaboration with each other. i want to thank my friend, attorney general loretta lynch for her leadership and guidance on this case and every case she oversees. out to thank john carlin, assistant attorney general of the national security division and the folks in his office at work on this case. and of course the fe ever created the fbi.

the sprawling investigation involve a lot of different fbi offices. i want to acknowledge and thank them all. the field offices of chicago, cincinnati, new york, phoenix and san francisco. i want to thank the fine men and women of my own office to make this case have been, especially tim howard and the supervisors michael friedlander and paul krieger. thank you all for all your work. that introduce you to the assistant attorney general, giancarlo. -- john carlin. mr. carlin: thank you. under his leadership there is no better partner in the country for the national security division than the southern district of new york. and is somewhat with friends and family in new york city i am grateful he is there and the prosecutors that are there to work against national security threats. i want to thank the fbi for their work on this

investigation. most importantly the victims who are sometimes not treated as victims when it comes to cyberattacks. we know the bad guys are not you, they are the people overseas targeting your systems and we cannot confront the stress of that your critical assistance. this case demonstrates the power of one public and private he worked together to confront a cyber threat. for many years nation states and their affiliates enjoy what many perceived to be a cloak of anonymity. a cloak they hid behind a break our laws through cyber intrusions and to threaten our security and economic well-being. they had this perceived cloak of anonymity because they thought we could not figure out who did it. they thought if we did figure out who did it, we would not say it. they are wrong. and a new approach we have unleashed prosecutors and agents across the country against national security cyber threats. that is why two years ago at this very podium we could announce an indictment against

five members of the people's liberation army's. this indictment will reinforce the days of anonymity are gone. we can remove the cloak and we will. today's announcement proves once again there is no free pass for those who conduct nation state affiliated intrusions. this week is a significant week when it comes to our national security cyber program. we unveiled charges against members of the syrian electronic army, and yesterday a chinese businessman in los angeles played guilty to conspiring to happen to defense contractors and is still sensitive information, including information related to fighter jets. and we can tell world that hackers affiliate with the iranian government attacked u.s. systems and we seek to bring them to justice for their crimes. no matter where a hacker is located or who he is affiliated with, the china or north korea,

the islamic state are the syrian electronic army, we can use of publicly. figure out who did it, say who did it and have consequences. this is still the beginning of this approach. we will continue to pursue hackers affiliated with patience they thwart terrorist organizations. we will we find you, use every tool at our disposal to hold the two account. that means more public actions, more charges, more sanctions, every tool the government can bring to bear to hold cyber hackers accountable. thank you and i want to turn it over to the attorney general for questions. >> we know the brussels attackers -- a concern that isis may try to target similar facilities here in the u.s.? how prepared is our infrastructure against cyber attack? mrs. lynch: its demonstrated by

this attempted attack on the bowman dam. is a great concern to us. we are constantly working with our partners both in the private industry and local governments to relay information and learn of issues or threats and to make sure they have the most recent information about other hacking activities so they can protect themselves. caseis point we think this speaks for itself in terms of these actors. would remain vigilant in the future. ams but all just d infrastructure. we think this is another example in which the public-private car that partnership is he. -- partnership is key. >> they also say attribution. can you talk a little bit about how you were able to trace these actors back to iran? mrs. lynch: i can give you specifics. what i can do is echo what you heard from this podium today.

an important part of our cyber security practice is to identify the actors into pitcher become publicly will be can. we do this so they know they cannot hide. a large part of his successful cyber security attack and the perpetrators mind is in fact getting in and out without anyone knowing who is involved. in clip is being repeatedly pulled away. i will defer to the director for more information but we can't go into a lot of specifics on that. >> we want them to know we can, but not how we can. what good does it do to indict these hackers and expand resources if they are not likely to be extradited? have you seen any tangible effects of the indictment to years ago into the five chinese militants? this is lynch: -- mrs. lynch: our view is that fugitives do not remain that way forever.

we have a long history of reaching out and working with those countries. we also have a long history of keeping charges alive in bringing to -- people to the u.s. for justice. not let that be a barrier to bringing charges, particularly when it is here. we want the world to know we are aware of the actions. >> two years ago indicting chinese military hackers, people abroad. have a seen anything from that indictment? mrs. lynch: i think there is a whole government approach to this. i think we have seen some significant changes in our interactions with the chinese government in terms of cigar -- cyber security and the way they have come to an agreement with the u.s. on the parameters of how countries should you cyber activities with each other. this is the beginning on this

very important arrow in the arsenal of cyber security. any signs that the terror suspects in brussels have any ties to the people inside united states? secondly, how concerning is it that hackers overseas are rooting around in the infrastructure of something like the kindtch could have of dance were talking about? mrs. lynch: when you're talking about infrastructure we obviously have great concern as to the ability to affect millions of people quickly. what we hadmilar to the attempted impact on the financial system. locking people out of online access to accounts is incredibly disruptive. -- work required by company companies to remediate that is very expensive.

our concern has always been the cyber issues. one of the reasons why cyber security is such a priority for this administration and this department is because we are in a world where literally the stroke of a mouse or the click pada computer had -- o damage can be unleashed much greater. this is something we are focused on an actively looking to prevent. with respect to your question on brussels, this is an investigation conducted by the belgian authorities. we are offering all assistance but it is their investigation. it is too early at this point to tell or provide information on the extra european link to individuals at this point. jim? >> what assistance of you provided to european investigators? whatever they asked for and what you provided? is there any sense this attack was directed by isis or more of an inspirational attack like the one of the --

we are at the early stages of the investigation. we are providing assistance. the fbi has offered assistance. the doj to our legal attaches have offered assistance. we stand ready to provide them with that. we are in the very early stages and is being conducted by the belgian authorities. we respect their investigation. we are in a supporting role here instantly too early to provide that kind of information for you. i am sorry i can i give you more insight into that. of retribution, can you say beyond the seven individuals you indicted for the you believe that these attacks were directed by the irgc or the iranian government itself. in terms of long memory and the powerful message sent, would you say this is more powerful or is the message from january one clemency pardons and competitions were given to seven

iranians and charges were dropped against 14 other iranians as part of guilty to the u.s. and iran. would you say the sessions send a more powerful message or the indictment you announced today? mrs. lynch: if your computer hacker sitting overseas, this indictment sends a powerful message. the full force of the u.s. government will come after you if you seek to attack our infrastructure, our financial institutions or our people. that is the strong message of today's charges. >> what about attribution to the iranian government? mrs. lynch: these individuals worked for two separate security companies and those companies and these individuals themselves definitely have ties to the irgc. beyond that i will not comment on facts that make them out at trial. >> i understand the investigation goes on in brussels. has a caused you, the fbi to rethink american security based on the facilities that were

attacked? does this give you any second thoughts about how americans to be should be changed? mrs. lynch: we are always looking at american security. both in the absence of an attack and certainly following something like what occurred in brussels or in paris several month ago. we are always looking at whether or not it increases folder abilities in the american system. we are looking to make sure we lock them up as this weekend. at this point we do not have a specific credible threat against the homeland. that does not mean we are not being vigilant. before this is the cancer that is isis. travel wek to

continue investigations and prosecutions. >> thank you general lynch. there's been a lot of commentary and reporting the last three or four days with respect to the fbi filings in the case involving the san bernardino and apple, if the government exhausted all opportunities to exploit that phone before seeking apple to help you do it. can you describe that he came to understand if the outside help was -- mrs. lynch: it is certainly in

our pleadings. as we reviewed this case the san bernardino case we are trying to exhaust all investigative tools to final information or evidence them of the two insights or information about those individuals. >> we will take you live to the american enterprise institute and hear from former cia and nsa director michael hayden. he has a new book out. just about to get underway live here on c-span. [crowd noise]