Ann Cooper (Professor Emerita of Journalism) wrote an opinion piece for CPJ about Putin’s 22-year assault on the Russian media and how the war on Ukraine put an end to any tolerance of critical voices.

Russian journalists have warned for years that Putin had the tools to effectively block or silence all of them whenever he wished. Yet even in the darkest times for press freedom a few critical voices were tolerated – until the war in Ukraine. Though it’s clear the Kremlin wants to control the Ukraine narrative, it’s not clear why – in a country where state-controlled TV still dominates media – all tolerance for the relatively small independent journalism community has finally evaporated.