Accused, among other things, of spreading "calls to commit extremist and violent acts", radio Ekho Moskvy and the Dojd channel were ordered on Tuesday by the Russian authorities to stop broadcasting.

In question, their refusal to stick to the official discourse on the war in Ukraine, a "military operation" intended to protect Russia from the Western threat and the Russian speakers from a "genocide".

At the same time, the government is preparing to toughen up its repressive arsenal.

A bill, which provides for up to 15 years in prison for publishing "fake news" about the Russian military, will be considered in the State Duma on Friday during an "extraordinary session", the TASS news agency has been told. MP Sergei Boyarsky.

The General Prosecutor's Office recalled on Saturday that "providing financial, logistical, consulting or other assistance" to a foreign organization or state for "their activities against the security of Russia" was "high treason", punishable by 20 years of detention.

Texts with vague phrasing which make their potential application all the more vast.

"Lead screed"

"There are enough laws in Russia to convict a journalist for any reason. And enough tools to eliminate a media outlet," said Galina Timtchenko, director of Meduza, an online news site headquartered in Russia. Latvia, in Riga.

And "censorship is already in place", she explains, after the ban on the media on Saturday from using the terms "invasion", "offensive" or "declaration of war", and from mentioning the death of civilians due to the Russian army.

However, on Wednesday, Meduza welcomes its readers with the word "war" written in large letters.

"Anyway (Roskomnadzor, the sector policeman) will soon disconnect us," says a journalist from the site, on condition of anonymity.

“Other media will soon be blocked,” confirms Lev Ponomarev, a respected human rights defender, who has already been arrested for demonstrating against the war like thousands of other Russians in small rallies across the country.

It is a "lead screed that falls", observes with AFP Jeanne Cavelier, responsible for Russia for the NGO Reporters without borders.

Besides Ekho Moskvy and Dojd, at least six Russian media outlets have been blocked by Roskomnadzor since the start of the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, she said.

And the Russian-language news site The Village was banned Wednesday night by the media regulator.

No independent media will be spared, not even Novaya Gazeta, whose editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021, predicts Ms. Cavelier.

“They will be blocked from one day to another”, just like the local publications which would refuse to bend.

The day after Dojd's ban, its editor Tikhon Dziadko announced on Telegram that he had fled Russia, like some of his colleagues, saying he was "in danger".

Internet, "free space"

The “war against the media” constitutes “the second front” of the invasion in Ukraine, believes Ms. Timtchenko.

Because "the Kremlin is afraid of losing this information war", adds Mr. Ponomarev.

On the side of the state media, we are working hard, like the extended Sunday television program of Dmitri Kiselev, spokesperson for the Kremlin, who proclaimed, presenting the Russian nuclear forces: "What's the point have a world in which Russia no longer exists".

"As if we were going back to the Soviet era, with the difference that now the internet exists and remains a free space", underlines Ms. Cavelier, who expects the blocking of sites and the arrest of journalists.

Alexei Moukhine, director of the Center for Political Information, pro-Kremlin, stresses that "censorship is simply impossible in the age of the Internet" and denies any offensive against respectable media.

On the other hand, according to him, the power faces "political opponents who have gone mad and who participate in the information war, spreading Ukrainian propaganda and generating panic".

For Ms. Timtchenko, the director of Meduza, the outcome of this battle is not in doubt.

"I feel like (Russian President Vladimir) Putin's end goal is for him to only stay with those who are in his favour. The others will be forced to flee or eliminated."

© 2022 AFP