The closure of Russia’s historic radio station, Echo of Moscowwhich announced today its self-dissolution, and the Internet television network Dojd shakes the last remaining independent Russian media, which see the opening, along with the invasion of Ukraine, of a “second war front” on which they are the target of a second attack by the Kremlin.
The Kremlin yesterday accused Moscow Echo and Dojd of spreading “calls for extremism and violence.” And he ordered them to stop broadcasting. The reason; Because they refused to limit themselves to the official propaganda that frames the “military operation” in Ukraine, with the aim of “protecting Russia from the Western threat and the Russian-speakers from a genocide.”
At the same time, the Russian government is preparing to harden its repressive mechanism.
The bill provides for a 15-year prison sentence for any publication that the Russian regime considers “fake news” in connection with the Russian armed forces. It will be discussed tomorrow in the Duma during an “extraordinary meeting”.
The Attorney General’s Office said on Saturday that “offering financial, logistical, advisory or other assistance” to a foreign organization or state for “its activities against Russia’s security” was a “final betrayal” and punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
The phraseology of the two texts is so vague that they can be applied to anyone or anything.
Vice
In any case, “in Russia there are enough laws to convict a journalist for any reason. “And enough tools to destroy a media outlet,” said Galina Timchenko, director of the news website Meduza.
And “censorship is already in place”, following last Saturday’s ban on the media from using the terms “INVASION”, “ATTACK”, “DECLARATION OF WAR” and giving information about civilian dead, victims of the Russian army.
Nevertheless, Meduza welcomes readers with the glorious title “WAR”. “In any case, Roskomnadzor (the Russian censorship machine) will soon unplug us,” said a website reporter.
“Other media will be blocked,” said Lev Ponomarev, a prominent human rights activist who was arrested along with thousands of Russians in anti-war protests across Russia.
In addition to Echo of Moscow and Dojd, at least six other Russian media outlets have been silenced by the Kremlin’s censorship machine since the invasion of Ukraine began.
No independent media outlet will be saved, not even the Novaïa Gazeta, whose director Dmitry Muratov was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021, predicts Jean Cavelier, media.
“They will be blocked overnight, as well as any local version that will not submit.
The Internet, a “space of freedom”
“The war on media is the second front of the invasion of Ukraine,” said Galina Timchenko. “Because the Kremlin is afraid of losing this information war,” Lev Ponomarev added.
On the part of the state-controlled media, the propaganda machines are working at full speed. Thus, the Russian public can, for example, hear the eponymous Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Kiselyov comment on his show introducing the Russian nuclear arsenal: “Why should there be a world in which Russia will not exist?”.
“It’s like we went back to the Soviet era, but with the difference that now there is the Internet, which remains a space of freedom,” said Jean Cavellier, who is waiting for websites to be blocked and journalists arrested.
Alexei Mukhin, director of the Kremlin-friendly Center for Political Intelligence, said “censorship is simply impossible in the age of the Internet” but denied that there had been an attack on “respectable” media.
In his opinion, the Russian government is facing “political opponents who have gone crazy and are participating in the information war, transmitting Ukrainian propaganda and causing panic.”
For Galina Timchenko, the outcome of this war is unquestionable: “I have the impression that Putin’s ultimate goal is to be left alone with those who are with him. “The others will be forced to leave or they will be exterminated.”
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