Many Russia-watchers have grown accustomed to beginning their day with a quick run through «Dorogaya redaktsiya,» the often-playful Twitter feed of Lenta.ru, one of Russia’s most popular sources of independent online news.

But «Dorogaya redaktsiya» went silent on March 12, replacing its Twitter icon with funereal black and issuing a final tweet linking to an open letter from the Lenta staff protesting the ouster of its longtime editor, Galina Timchenko, and her replacement with a Kremlin-friendly candidate, Aleksei Goreslavsky.

«We believe that this appointment is direct pressure on the Lenta editorial staff,» says the letter, which includes the signatures of more than 80 editors, correspondents, and administrators. «The problem is not that we have nowhere left to work. The problem is that you have nothing left to read.»

Thirty-nine staffers have since quit in protest.

http://www.rferl.org/content/media-russia-lenta-sacking/25295996.html