The Russian government tightened its grip on non-Kremlin-aligned media, banning the war in Ukraine from being called by its name on Saturday. The approved term is “special military operation in Donbass”.
This was the name given by President Vladimir Putin to the invasion, in a recorded speech that was televised before sunrise on Thursday (24). It refers to the recognition of the pro-Russian rebel areas in eastern Ukraine, the Don (Donbass) river basin, which asked for military aid against an alleged Kiev aggression.
As you can see with troops on the streets of Ukraine’s capital and attacks in multiple points in the neighbourhood, the war goes far beyond Donbass. But not for Roskomnadzor, Putin’s communications regulator.
In a statement, she told 10 media outlets that their publications would be blocked if they continued to use the term war, declaration of war, attack or invasion. The notice of the narrative battle was received by well-known media, such as Radio Eco Moscow, Novaia Gazeta (new newspaper, in Russian), TV Dojd (rain) and the websites Mediazona and The New Times, among others.
In addition to blocking and jamming, there is the possibility of fines reaching up to 5 million rubles (R$ 300,000). Since 2012, when there were massive protests against his victory for a third presidential term, Putin has accelerated his ongoing project to curb press freedom.
The main instrument is a law from that year, which allows the Kremlin to call any entity, media or individual that receives funds from abroad a “foreign agent”. As during the “color revolutions” against pro-Russian regimes on Russia’s ex-Soviet periphery they had Western support, Putin suspected a pattern and resolved to toughen up at home.
Independent research institutes such as Centro Levada, NGOs of all kinds and various media have entered the basin. The classification allows for crippling fines to the taste of audits considered intimidating. Several have moved abroad, such as the Estonia-based website Meduza.
Today, among the survivors of the freest media, only Novaia Gazeta does not have the title, thanks to the fact that it has Russian shareholders and the prestige of its editor-in-chief, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dmitri Muratov.
In the mainstream media, especially TVs and their internet extensions, the war is called what the Kremlin wants. On the RT network, even on the English service, outlines of Putin’s speech are a constant part of the headlines at the bottom of the screens, as if they were the news of the day.
It’s not that the Western media has excelled in impartial coverage, with clear signs of pro-White House bias in various media. But there is still no news of objective censorship commanded by Western governments against those who speak something different, although the Kremlin points out that “big techs” such as Facebook are auxiliary lines of this Cold War 2.0.
There are other greater communications control signals. Using signal from mobile operators, it was also possible to notice on Moscow streets a degradation of the speed of social network applications such as Facebook and Twitter.
On Friday, Roskomnadzor announced that it would set limits on Facebook because the network had suspended the account of state agency RIA-Novosti for 90 days, accusing its posts about the war as disinformation. This Saturday, the network expanded the list of entities linked to the Kremlin under digital sanction.
In Ukraine, there are also internet blackouts in progress, but there the responsibility is attributed by the government to cyberattacks coming from Belarus, a dictatorship that supports Russia in the endeavors.
Such as sheet showed, there is an ongoing reaction in various strata of Russian society against the war, largely due to the fact that there are great blood ties between families of the two countries. Celebrities, intellectuals and sportsmen have demonstrated, although it is difficult to reach the streets due to police repression that prohibits acts without prior authorization.
On Friday (25), there was a minor act in St. Petersburg, which was dispersed. The day before, protests in more than 40 cities resulted in 1,800 being detained by the police.
This Saturday, the Russian Football League began to see the effects of the crisis. In the game that will take place between Dynamo Moscow and Khimki, the Ukrainians of the team will not go to the field: the defender Ivan Ordets and the team’s coach, the ex-star of the Kiev national team Andrei Voronin.
“We consider further explanations about his absence unnecessary: ​​it is clear that, given the circumstances, his thoughts are now on something else,” the club said in a statement. There are six Ukrainians playing in the First Division, and no Russians in Ukraine. Both countries lavish Brazilians on their teams.
