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It's been a staple of Russian TV since the Soviet era: A high-minded but fast-paced brainteasing quiz show filled with wit and wordplay. Now, What? Where? When? has increasingly turned into something else, some of its veterans say: a vehicle for Kremlin propaganda about the Ukraine invasion.
In a wide-ranging interview, Russian opposition figure Mikhail Khodorkovsky tells Current Time that President Vladimir Putin views everything through the prism of his war against Ukraine and what the exiled former oil tycoon portrays as the authoritarian leader’s weakening grip on power.
A Russian-born émigré tells Current Time how her family hid in a safe room as Hamas gunmen searched their home in Israel. Maria Ballach moved to Israel 20 years ago and is a resident of Kibbutz Nahal Oz, an Israeli village near the border with Gaza. She says her husband and infant child could hear the attackers talking, and looting their home. Ballach credits the reinforced latch on the safe room door for saving their lives as Hamas militants repeatedly tried to enter.
Amid widespread horror over Hamas's surprise attack on Israel and the violence targeting civilians, many pro-Kremlin commentators have welcomed the carnage as a distraction from Russia’s aggression in Ukraine and a comeuppance for anti-war Russians who fled to Israel.
Updated to add details from the Financial Times' report.