1st Edition
Kremlin Media Wars Censorship and Control Since the Invasion of Ukraine
1. Introduction: Post-Soviet censorship and regulation in Russia
Aleksandra Raspopina
Part I: Understanding censorship and Internet regulation in Russia
Introduction to Part I
2. Criminalizing independent journalism: 20th century controls on the 21st century media.
James Rodgers
3. The Russian Media System: From the Soviet model to the ‘special military operation’.
Anastasia Stepanova
4. The history of Russian media regulation: Strategic communication and information environment transformation from the Kursk submarine disaster to the Crocus City terror attack.
Gregory Asmolov
5. Try Instagramming in Russia or the rise of digital authoritarianism.
Gergely Gosztonyi
6. Essay: Wartime Propaganda: Stalin during the Great Patriotic War and Putin’s special operation.
Alan Philps
7. Essay: How the Russian liberal media lost an audience of 65 million: A view from inside the information bubble.
Svetlana Kunitsyna
Part II: Working under Kremlin censorship
Introduction to Part II
8. Essay: Media in exile: from samizdat to VPN.
Derk Sauer
9. Tactics of Russia’s independent media during the war in Ukraine.
Tatiana Chervyakova
10. ‘Russian military censorship, like the Russian warship, can go f*** itself’. An analysis of Russian independent media response to wartime media freedom restrictions.
Aleksandra Raspopina
11. Essay: The High Price of Self-Censorship.
Michele A. Berdy
12. Wartime Transformation of Novaya Gazeta.
Dmitry Kuznetsov
13. Understanding Russian leadership by analysing recent trends in Russian opposition media.
Denis Bilunov
Part III: Censorship beyond politics
Introduction to Part III
14. Essay: Did the Western media misjudge Putin?
Peter Conradi
15. Essay: How gender roles are being reinforced in Putin’s brave new patriarchy.
Samantha Berkhead
16. Transphobia as a weapon of war: reporting on Russia’s trans community amidst heightened regulation, censorship and propaganda.
Wendy Sloane
17. Public expression in Russian academic institutions in times of war: toward a general logic of control in symbolic institutions.
Ilya Kiriya
18. Essay: ‘First Targets’: The overlooked battle for freedom of expression in Ukraine's temporarily occupied territories.
Emily Couch
19. Essay: Learning to cover Russia from outside of Russia.
Alexander Gubsky
Biography
Wendy Sloane is an Associate Professor, Principal Lecturer, and Journalism Course Leader at London Metropolitan University and is currently working on a PhD about censorship and press restrictions in Russia following the invasion of Ukraine. She received a BA in Political Science and Russian from Mount Holyoke College and an MA in International Affairs from Columbia University’s Harriman Institute for Advanced Study of the Soviet Union. She has previously worked for Time Magazine, Moscow Magazine, Associated Press, The Daily Telegraph, and the Christian Science Monitor.
Aleksandra Raspopina is a Senior Lecturer in Journalism and Digital Media at London Metropolitan University and a Researcher interested in Russian post‑Soviet journalism, media and politics, misinformation and disinformation, and post‑truth. She has previously worked as a journalist for a number of publications, including The Calvert Journal, The Guardian, The Economist, Vice, and CBS News, and worked as a Lecturer in Journalism and Media Research at City, University of London and Middlesex University.
