Radio Liberty stops its work in Russia


Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) has suspended its work in Russia after local tax authorities declared the Russian legal entity Radio Liberty bankrupt on March 4 this year, and Russian police increased pressure on journalists.

At the Moscow office of Radio Liberty.
Photo: Radio Liberty

“These Kremlin attacks on Radio Liberty’s ability to operate in Russia are the culmination of a long campaign of pressure on Radio Liberty, which has been operating in Russia since 1991 when it set up its Moscow bureau at the invitation of then-President Boris Yeltsin,” Radio Liberty said in a March 6 official statement.

On March 4, Vladimir Putin signed a law stating that any journalist who deviates from the Kremlin’s views on the war against Ukraine can be sentenced to 15 years in prison.

The Russian service of Radio Liberty plans to continue operating from outside Russia.

Nine of Radio Liberty’s Russian-language projects were blocked over the past week after RFE/RL refused to comply with the Moscow government’s demand to remove information about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. On March 3, Russian authorities blocked access to Radio Liberty websites and projects in Russia, including the 24-hour Russian-language television network Present Time, created in cooperation with Voice of America.

Radio Liberty has been broadcasting to Russian audiences since March 1, 1953. Between November 1988 and August 1991, when Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s “glasnost” policy was being consolidated, the Russian service created a network of 400 people all over the USSR and more than 40 in Moscow. On August 27, 1991, Russian President Boris Yeltsin issued a decree that gave Radio Liberty accreditation and allowed it to open an office in Moscow. In 2002, Vladimir Putin repealed this decree.

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