It's good to remember that the previous American president also waged a war against every media outlet he didn't like by claiming they were "fake news." It's the same authoritarianism in different stages.

And if you think nobody in America wants to jail journalists and media CEOs, go look at any forum with a substantial amount of Republicans talking freely.

A new arrival to Gulag is asked: "What were you given 10 years for?" – "For nothing!" – "Don't lie to us here, now! Everybody knows 'for nothing' is 3 years."

Two out of the last three remaining somewhat independent media that were still operating in the country (already under major restrictions) were also shut down, TV rain just did their last transmission and walked out of the studio crying:

https://youtu.be/e4an0MlF27k?t=11397

Twitter and facebook are being blocked. Youtube and group chats in telegram/signal/etc are the only things left right now.

7670 people have been detained so far.

Ripping a page from Hong Kong's "national security" law under the PRC, which resulted in Apple Daily publisher Jimmy Lai being sentenced to prison (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-56770567). The law even goes after people not living in Hong Kong:

The wording of the Hong Kong national security law asserts jurisdiction over people who are not residents of Hong Kong and have never even set foot there. This means anyone on Earth, regardless of nationality or location, can technically be deemed to have violated this law and face arrest and prosecution if they are in a Chinese jurisdiction, even for transit.

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/07/hong-kong-nat...

Russia turning into North Korea v2 at lightning speed...

Russia complaining about fake news is jaw-dropping in its irony. They're the ones who turned fake news into an art form. And as an authoritarian government, theyshould have no problem dealing with it.

Hmmm... seems oddly reminiscent of something once done in a certain countries history. Almost as if it is being repeated.

Boris Johnson to make protests that cause 'annoyance' illegal, with prison sentences of up to 10 years https://www.businessinsider.com/boris-johnson-outlaw-protest...

UK law people making social media posts could face two years in prison over Fake News https://www.rt.com/uk/539103-trolls-prison-psychological-har...

That's not even the worst part.

Another proposition is to send anti-war protesters to war “so that they can see what's actually going on”.

I get the impression that Putin was on the edge of losing Russia before Ukraine. Ukraine may be a final ploy for him to stay in power. Wartime crack downs, crippling political rivals with loss of large foreign assets, insulating Russia from external media, cutting domestic media, mobilizing troops and reserves. All of this cements a shaky position which was being undermined by foreign and domestic political groups.

We'll see how the gamble goes. We may see Russia become North Korea 2.0 with the Putin family as the new Tzars of Russia. Or maybe a second governmental collapse is imminent.

If you have access to all other country's news sources, and they're all contradicting your govt... what are the chances your govt is right and the rest of the world is wrong?

This is exactly what people wanted to happen to anyone who questioned covid rhetoric.

We’re not free anymore. Haven’t been for a long time.

Bring back the FCC fairness doctrine.

"We have always been at war with Westernworld."

Fortunately the law has not been approved, but if it will be approved, this would make Russia even worse place.

What are the odds the same law will spring up in the US, but be good when we do it?

Not much different from banning all Russian media, now I can't check what the Russians say because I'm too dumb and prone to propaganda I guess. USA good, Russia bad that's all I need to know.

this is the problem with the fake news narrative

Metastasis of the Cold War, this is what it is. Like the world wars are connected, this war is also connected to CW. USSR did not disintegrate enough, ideologically.

Putin is no better than Hitler and nothing the Russian government says can be trusted. They only respect force, nothing else.

I was very surprised to see virtually all hacking groups declare war on russia over this war. So many APT groups are Russian but they do oppose the war. The expected cyber war is all Russia's to deal with.

The actual war isn't going well at all. Their reg troops are driving by wrecked russian equipment destroying their morale.

So they can't deal with reality, send everyone who dissents to prison.

Didn’t Abe Lincoln pull this same stunt too?

Europe just banned Russian TVs from broadcasting because they didn't agree with the content... https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/eu-bans-rt-sputnik-bann...

Ironically this article itself is fake news:

1. It is just a proposal: “The proposed legislation, which is supported by Vyacheslav Volodin, the parliamentary speaker, a close ally of President Putin, could be discussed by parliament as early as this week, state television reported.”

2. Another wild proposal, to forcibly conscript protestors, was shot down by Kremlin:

https://twitter.com/GazetaRu/status/1499402119836622858

It’s disappointing to see not one comment here suggesting that someone read beyond the headline. Et tu, Hacker News?

I guess why:

https://nitter.snopyta.org/MarkAmesExiled/status/14991264245...

No one is innocent here. On Spanish media they dared to use videogame images (Arma 3) as real footage, ditto with a Chinese civil explosion (causality/accident) as a Russia bombing strike.