It censors sources of information that do not disseminate its propaganda.
This argument is used in the debate Does being on the left necessarily mean being in favor of mass immigration?.
This argument is a justification of Putin has all the characteristics of a dictator.
Summary
Quotes
“The authorities used the laws on "foreign agents" and "undesirable organizations" to suppress freedom of expression and silence the press, journalists and independent activists. Failure to include the obligatory "agents of foreigners" heading on publications was now punishable by a fine.
Fourteen media organizations and 70 individuals were designated as "foreign agents". The investigative medium Proekt was banned as an "undesirable". Its founder, Roman Badanin, later classified as a "foreign agent", and two other journalists were searched in June as part of an investigation into a libel case.
Journalist Elena Milachina received thinly veiled death threats after the publication of her investigative work on extrajudicial executions and torture at the hands of the Chechen police. These threats were not seriously investigated.
In August, a BBC correspondent in Moscow was banned from Russia "sine die", on the grounds that she represented "a threat to national security".
In April, four journalists from the student magazine DOXA were placed under travel restrictions as common-law suspects. They were accused of "involving minors in dangerous activities", for a video which called on students not to give in to threats of expulsion if they took part in peaceful demonstrations. Their trial began in December.
Dissident musicians faced concert cancellations. A concert by poet and journalist Tatyana Voltskaya was cancelled in October, because she had been designated an "agent of foreigners" shortly beforehand.
Arbitrary and extrajudicial blocking of websites continued, while the scope of the relevant legislation was extended. More than forty websites associated with Alexei Navalny's political and anti-corruption activities were blocked in July, on the pretext that they were being used "for prohibited extremist activities".
In September, the Moscow Arbitration Court ordered Google and Yandex to remove all references to "intelligent voting" from their search engine results. Google and Facebook have been repeatedly fined for failing to remove "prohibited content". Journalist Igor Khorochilov was twice sentenced to 10 days' administrative detention for "extremist badge propaganda" after mentioning "intelligent voting" on Facebook.
In September, the Federal Security Service (FSB) published a long list of non-secret topics, ranging from offenses committed within the army to delays in space programs, the monitoring or coverage of which now made their author a "foreign agent". The St Petersburg-based NGO Mothers of Soldiers, a veterans' rights organization, announced following the publication that it would no longer be working on human rights violations in the army.
Dmitri Muratov, editor-in-chief of the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in October, in recognition of his contribution to freedom of expression in an increasingly repressive media environment.”
