In about ten days, Russia moved from an authoritarian regime to an autocracy. Moscow blocked Facebook on Friday, restricting access to Twitter and cracking down on the media by imposing harsh prison sentences for spreading “false information about the army” amid an invasion of Ukraine.
The measures taken strengthen the authorities’ arsenal to control 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 amendment introduces various sentences of up to 15 years in prison for disseminating information aimed at “discrediting” the Russian armed forces. The second provides sanctions for “calls for sanctions against Russia”, which is facing harsh Western retaliatory measures for its invasion of Ukraine.
The texts, which apply to both the media and Russians and foreigners, came into force after being approved by the Russian parliament and ratified by President Vladimir Putin late last night.
Foreign media are packing
The independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta said it was “forced to delete a lot of content” to avoid sanctions, but wanted to “keep working”. Internationally, the news agency Bloomberg and the BBC (British Public Broadcasting) have announced that they are shutting down their journalists, and the American news channel CNN has announced that it is broadcasting its programs in Russia.
The new law “appears to have been written to make every freelance journalist a criminal through mere association, which makes it impossible to keep any kind of journalism alive in the country,” said Bloomberg editor John Michellwaite. The BBC will continue to report in Russian outside the country.
facebook blocked
On Friday, media regulator Roskomnadzor also ordered the immediate blocking of Facebook, accusing it of “discriminating” against Russian media such as Defense Ministry television or the RIA Novosti news agency.
Russia’s social network no longer works without a VPN, and the American group confirmed, complaining that “millions of ordinary Russians will soon be deprived of reliable information.”
The regulator has also started “restricting access” to Twitter, but the platform told AFP that it “does not see a significant difference at the moment” with the access difficulties that have been going on for a week.
The body previously said it had restricted access to the BBC, German international radio and television Deutsche Welle (DW), the independent Russian website Meduza (based in Riga, Latvia), Radio Liberty, the Russian branch of RFE / RL, the Voice of America and other unnamed news sites.
On the spot, the independent Internet television channel Dojd announced on Thursday that it was shutting down, and the iconic Echo of Moscow radio station (Echo of Moscow) announced its disbandment after blocking their websites.