Alexey Kovalev is the head of excavations for the regime-critical Meduza, but now handles his reporting from Riga in Latvia.
He fled the country last week - the day before the new media law was passed by the Russian Duman.
Since then, a number of independent media channels such as Dozhd and Moscow Eco have shut down, or said they refrain from reporting from the war, such as the newspaper Novaya Gazeta.
- The Russians do not have access to any independent sources of information right now, it is just the government's propaganda.
In principle, only Meduza remains, but then you must be able to use VPN and proxy servers.
So you have to be technically savvy if you want to get independent information in Russia, says Alexey Kovalev.
Media use code languages
Among other things, Meduza uses the Telegram app, which encrypts content, to reach its readers.
There, the number of users has doubled since the war broke out.
Alexey Kovalev also says that some media are trying to get around the new law media law with "code language".
- Some independent media that remain have said that they stop reporting on the war.
Others omit the word war, or replace it with asterisks or something similar, he says.