Galina Timchenko: I was 'fired' because of the Kremlin

Russian journalist Galina Timchenko was chief editor of popular independent Russian news website Lenta.ru but was abruptly sacked in March 2014 after publishing an interview with a member of Right Sector, a far-right Ukrainian nationalist group.

At the time of her departure the news service had 3m unique users per day. She told Hardtalk's Sarah Montague, that when she told the news sites' owner about the success he was scared.

"The Kremlin want to control all major channels of information and Lenta became number one on the Russian internet," she said.

Timchenko was replaced by Alexei Goreslavsky, who had previously headed a staunchly pro-Kremlin website.

Most of Timchenko's journalists followed her out of the door and many of them now work under her at the Latvia-based Meduza.com.

Watch the full interview on Wednesday 27 February 2019 on BBC World News and the BBC News Channel and watch again on BBC iPlayer (UK only).