Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Suspend Russian Operations: ‘Assault on the Truth’

Russian tax authorities started bankruptcy proceedings, but the news agency said it was part of a pressure campaign

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the US government-backed news service, suspended operations in Russia early on Sunday after tax authorities initiated bankruptcy proceedings against the news organizations in what the group called “an assault on the truth.” 

“It is with the deepest regret that I announce the suspension of our physical operations in Moscow today,” said RFE/RL President & CEO Jamie Fly in a statement. “This is not a decision that RFE/RL has taken of its own accord, but one that has been forced upon us by the Putin regime’s assault on the truth.”

Radio Free Europe is an American government-backed news organization that seeks to provide independent reporting to countries where freedom of the press is constrained. 

In a press release, RFE said that its journalists had been threatened and that the closure was the culmination of “a years-long pressure campaign against RFE/RL, which has maintained a physical presence in Russia since 1991 when it established its Moscow bureau at the invitation of then-President Boris Yeltsin.”

Since invading Ukraine, Russia has blocked numerous Russian-language websites producing news content from abroad, including Meduza, BBC, Deutsche Welle and Voice of America. CNN, ABC and CBS are among the news organizations that have been forced to cease reporting in Russia after Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law on March 4 that imposes a 15-year prison sentence for those who spread “disinformation” about the war in Ukraine, including calling it a “war” and not a “special military operation.” 

The Kremlin has also blocked access to Facebook and Twitter.

According to the RFE statement, nine of the agency’s Russian-language websites were blocked in the last week after refusing to comply with the Russian government’s demands to delete information about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Here is the full statement from Fly: 

“It is with the deepest regret that I announce the suspension of our physical operations in Moscow today. This is not a decision that RFE/RL has taken of its own accord, but one that has been forced upon us by the Putin regime’s assault on the truth. Following years of threats, intimidation and harassment of our journalists, the Kremlin, desperate to prevent Russian citizens from knowing the truth about its illegal war in Ukraine, is now branding honest journalists as traitors to the Russian state. We will continue to expand our reporting for Russian audiences and will use every platform possible to reach them at a time when they need our journalism more than ever. Despite this bleak moment, we know from our organization’s 70-year history that one day, perhaps sooner than many think, we will be able to reopen a bureau in Russia. Time is on the side of liberty, even in Vladimir Putin’s Russia.”

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