In about ten days, Russia moved from a dictatorial regime to an authoritarian one. Moscow on Friday blocked Facebook, restricted access to Twitter and cracked down on the media, introducing harsh prison sentences for spreading “false information about the military.” In the whole invasion of Ukraine.
The measures taken strengthen the arsenal of officers To control the story What are they doing to the Russian people about the invasion of Ukraine, which is presented as a limited measure aimed at protecting Russian-speaking Ukrainians from “genocide”.
An amendment carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison for spreading information aimed at “discrediting” the Russian armed forces. It provides a moment’s call for a “call for sanctions on Russia” in the face of harsh Western retaliation for its occupation of Ukraine.
The texts, which apply to the media and to Russian and foreign nationals, came into effect late in the evening after the approval of the Russian parliament and the approval of President Vladimir Putin.
Foreign media cover their bags
Independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta He said he was “forced to remove a lot of content” to avoid sanctions but wanted to “continue to act”. Internationally, the Bloomberg News Agency and the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) have announced that they will suspend the activities of their journalists, and the American news channel CNN will cease broadcasting its programs in Russia.
The new law “seems to have been written to offend every freelance journalist, and by mere federation, no semblance of journalism in the country can be kept alive,” said Bloomberg editor John Micklewhite. The BBC will continue to report in Russian from outside the country.
Facebook blocked
On Friday, media regulator Roskomnadzor ordered the immediate closure of Facebook, accusing it of “discriminating” against Russian media outlets such as the Defense Ministry television Zvezda or the Ria Novosti news agency.
The US panel confirmed that social networking in Russia would no longer work without a VPN, and lamented that “millions of ordinary Russians will soon lose credible information.”
The regulator has also begun to “restrict access” to Twitter, but the site told AFP “do not see a significant difference at the moment” with the access difficulties it has already been facing for a week.
The authority previously announced that it had restricted access to the BBC, German international radio and television station Deutsche Welle (DW), the independent Russian site Meduza (based in Riga, Latvia), Radio Svoboda, the Russian branch of the RFE / RL, and Voice of America. And other untitled news sites.
At the site, the independent Internet television channel Dojd suspended its operation on Thursday, and it was disbanded after the identity radio station Ekho Moskvy (Moscow’s Echo) blocked their sites.
