The Kremlin forced Echo of Moscow, Russia’s flagship liberal radio station, to shut down its radio broadcast and website on Thursday, turning a symbol of the country’s newfound freedom after the collapse of the Soviet Union into a symbol of the rapid crackdown on dissent in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine.

Aleksei A. Venediktov, the radio station’s longtime editor, said the station’s board of directors had “made the decision to liquidate the radio channel and website Echo of Moscow”. It was not immediately clear whether Echo might be able to maintain a voice on YouTube or other online platforms.

Gazprom, the state-run energy giant, owns the station, but has long allowed it to operate with some degree of independence in what analysts saw as an attempt by the Kremlin to maintain a facade of pluralism amid its creeping authoritarianism. Yet that mask came off after the invasion of Ukraine last Thursday prompted an outpouring of anger inside Russia.

The government took Echo of Moscow off the air on Tuesday for the first time since its famed coverage of the 1991 Soviet coup attempt, and it blocked its website.

On Friday, Russian lawmakers are expected to consider newly draconian laws aimed at muzzling anything but the official narrative of the fighting in Ukraine, which the Kremlin says must be called a “special military operation” rather than invasion or a war.

Under the law, “fakes” about the war could be punished by 15 years in prison, and many Russians fear even harsher measures in the days ahead.

(New York Times News Service

Channel off

Russian TV channel Dozhd (Rain) is temporarily halting its work, its general director said on Thursday, after its website was blocked this week. “We need strength to ... understand how we can work from here. We really hope that we will return.” Reuters

Raid on Bangla ship

A missile or bomb hit a Bangladeshi-owned cargo ship in the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Olvia, killing one of its crew members, and efforts were underway to rescue the others from the vessel, its owner said on Thursday. “The ship came under attack and one engineer was killed,” Pijush Dutta, executive director of Bangladesh Shipping Corp, told Reuters. “It was not clear whether it was a bomb or missile or which side launched the attack. The other 28 crewmen are unharmed,” he said, without providing further details.
The Banglar Samriddhi had been stuck in Olvia since Russia’s invasion. Reuters