August 13, 2022

Fighting Extremism, or Censoring the Truth?


Fighting Extremism, or Censoring the Truth?
Can you hear the *click* and *clack*? Pexels, Markus Winkler

On August 8, Russian Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov reported that 138,000 websites, including Instagram and Facebook, have been either banned or deleted in Russia. According to Krasnov, websites are being censored by Roskomnadzor at an increased rate in order to fight off terrorism, extremism, and “fake news.” 

Roskomnadzor is an agency of the Russian Federation tasked with censoring and controlling mass media. It is no secret that the Kremlin seeks to create a false reality regarding the invasion of Ukraine through the media. For example, the Kremlin refers to the deadly invasion as a “special military operation” rather than a "war." Anything reported through mass media differing from the perspective the Kremlin seeks to convey is taken down.

New legislation even allows for the prosecution of individuals for spreading “misinformation” or “fake news.” This may include information that criticizes the Kremlin or the invasion of Ukraine.

The standard sentence for those who break this law is fifteen years.

You Might Also Like

Life Impacts Art
  • August 07, 2022

Life Impacts Art

Two female Russian artists discuss how their life and work has been impacted by Russia's Ukraine War.
Sanctioning Romance
  • August 06, 2022

Sanctioning Romance

Alina Kabaeva, Vladimir Putin's alleged romantic partner, has been sanctioned by the US Treasury. 
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

A beloved Russian classic about a resourceful Russian peasant, Vanya, and his miracle-working horse, who together undergo various trials, exploits and adventures at the whim of a laughable tsar, told in rich, narrative poetry.
Tolstoy Bilingual

Tolstoy Bilingual

This compact, yet surprisingly broad look at the life and work of Tolstoy spans from one of his earliest stories to one of his last, looking at works that made him famous and others that made him notorious. 
Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

A book that dares to explore the humanity of priests and pilgrims, saints and sinners, Faith & Humor has been both a runaway bestseller in Russia and the focus of heated controversy – as often happens when a thoughtful writer takes on sacred cows. The stories, aphorisms, anecdotes, dialogues and adventures in this volume comprise an encyclopedia of modern Russian Orthodoxy, and thereby of Russian life.
Marooned in Moscow

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.
Chekhov Bilingual

Chekhov Bilingual

Some of Chekhov's most beloved stories, with English and accented Russian on facing pages throughout. 
The Samovar Murders

The Samovar Murders

The murder of a poet is always more than a murder. When a famous writer is brutally stabbed on the campus of Moscow’s Lumumba University, the son of a recently deposed African president confesses, and the case assumes political implications that no one wants any part of.
Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

This is the work that made Chekhov, launching his career as a writer and playwright of national and international renown. Retranslated and updated, this new bilingual edition is a super way to improve your Russian.
The Moscow Eccentric

The Moscow Eccentric

Advance reviewers are calling this new translation "a coup" and "a remarkable achievement." This rediscovered gem of a novel by one of Russia's finest writers explores some of the thorniest issues of the early twentieth century.
Moscow and Muscovites

Moscow and Muscovites

Vladimir Gilyarovsky's classic portrait of the Russian capital is one of Russians’ most beloved books. Yet it has never before been translated into English. Until now! It is a spectactular verbal pastiche: conversation, from gutter gibberish to the drawing room; oratory, from illiterates to aristocrats; prose, from boilerplate to Tolstoy; poetry, from earthy humor to Pushkin. 

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955