In one day, the quality of life of millions of Russians, albeit far from the Ukrainian front, has largely deteriorated. Just like the image of democracy in this country. Blame the Kremlin for turning the screw. This Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law imposing harsh sentences of imprisonment on anyone who publishes “false information” about the military in the event of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Moscow. In other words, any discourse that is inconsistent with that repeatedly presented by the state media.
The amendments, recently adopted by MEPs, include sanctions for “calls for sanctions against Russia”, which is facing harsh Western retaliatory measures.
Sentences of up to 15 years in prison will be imposed on those who disseminate “false information” leading to “serious consequences” for the Russian armed forces. These texts apply to the general population, not just to information professionals.
The words war and invasion are banned in the media
They aim to increase the repressive arsenal of the authorities, who are tightening their control over information in the midst of the offensive against Ukraine, blocking Facebook, independent media and restricting Twitter. The measures taken strengthen the authorities’ arsenal of control over the report they give to the Russian population on the invasion of Ukraine, presented as a limited operation aimed at protecting Russian-speaking Ukrainians from “genocide”.
The BBC (British Public Television) responded by announcing the suspension of all its journalists in Russia, while the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta – edited by Dmitry Muratov, the last Nobel Peace Prize – said it had been “forced to delete a lot of content. “To avoid sanctions, but wants to” keep working. “Meta, the parent company of Facebook, confirmed, complaining that” millions of ordinary Russians will soon be deprived of reliable information. “
With regard to the invasion of Ukraine, Russian authorities have banned the media from using information other than official statements on the matter. They banned the use of words such as “war” and “invasion.”