Yelena Tregubova

Tregubova studied journalism at Moscow State University in the 1990s. She started her career as a journalist with the newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta. Between 1997 and 2001, Tregubova was a member of the Kremlin press pool, reporting for the independent Moscow dailies Kommersant, Izvestia, and Russky Telegraf. The members of this "Kremlin Pool" are reporters who cover the work of Russian presidents (Boris Yeltsin and later Vladimir Putin) for television and major newspapers. During this time she interviewed many top members of Kremlin's administration, including Putin, Alexander Voloshin and Anatoliy Chubais.

Tregubova's reporting often irritated Kremlin administration, which resulted in sanctions. Alexey Gromov, a press secretary of Putin, often excluded her from official briefings, where all other correspondents were present. According to her book, The Tales of a Kremlin Digger, Gromov said that was a directive of Putin, and Putin was especially furious when she asked him about his relations with Boris Berezovsky, who started criticizing Putin's "Power vertical" in May 2000. She described her conversation with Gromov when he criticized her newspaper Kommersant for reprinting negative materials about Putin's policies from Western newspapers. He asked her: "Are you going to blame Putin for stiffing independent media when we start the dekulakization of Berezovsky?"[1]

In the end of 2000, Tregubova was replaced in the Kremlin press pool by another correspondent. Kommersant Editor-in-Chief Andrey Vasiliev gave in to the pressure from Kremlin [2][3]

In February 2004, four months after the publication of The Tales of a Kremlin Digger, Tregubova received a telephone call from a man claiming to be a Sheremetyevo International Airport employee. He told her that he had a package for her and asked for her delivery address. When she declined to provide it and asked from what telephone number he was calling, he hung up. On February 2, 2004, a bomb exploded outside the door to her Moscow apartment. No one was injured and officials claimed it to be "an act of hooliganism".[4][5]

The Italian translation of The Tales of a Kremlin Digger (I mutanti del Cremlino) was brought out by Piemme Publishing in 2005, the German translation (Die Mutanten des Kremls) by Tropen Verlag in October 2006.[6][7] Tregubova's books have not yet been translated into English.

Tregubova made the highlights in Germany in connection with the October 7, 2006 murder of the Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya. On October 12, 2006, the German newspaper Zeit published Tregubova's open letter to German Chancellor Angela Merkel entitled "Silence Means Collaboration". Tregubova called upon Mrs. Merkel to speak out against the suppression of free press in Russia.[8]

On April 23, 2007, Trebugova filed an application for political asylum to Britain's Home Office, claiming her life was in "mortal danger" in Russia. On April 2, 2008, she told Reuters that the request had been granted.[9][10][11]

• Tregubova, Elena (2003). The Tales of a Kremlin Digger (Байки кремлевского диггера). Moscow: Ad Marginem. ISBN 978-5-93321-073-3.
• Tregubova, Elena (2004). Farewell of the Kremlin Digger (Прощание кремлёвского диггера). Moscow: Ad Marginem. ISBN 978-5-93321-095-5.

• Fatima Tlisova
• Yelena Maglevannaya

• BBC News reports
• Washington Post on freedom of speech in Russia
• Moscow Times reports on Tregubova’s Tales
• Bomb attack on ex-Kremlin press pool journalist
• Asia Media: Book prompts angry reaction from Kremlin
• Former Kremlin Digger Dishes the Dirt
• Bomb Blast Near «Digger»
• Tales of a Kremlin Digger
• Kremlin Digger: tabloid book may have sparked Kremlin ire.(notebook)(Tales of a Kremlin Digger by Yelena Tregubova)(Brief Article)
• Anger in Kremlin as "digger" reveals Putin secrets