Funerals are being held for soldiers. Shopping malls have more and more vacant storefronts. Prices are rising, and goods are disappearing from store shelves.

These are some of the stories that Russia’s non-state regional media outlets have reported on in recent weeks. But what they can’t tell their audiences is the story behind all of these stories: the story of what the Kremlin euphemistically calls its “special military operation,” the war in Ukraine.

A woman holds a placard reading "You can't shut up everyone!" as journalists and supporters take part in a protest against censorship in Moscow in September.
A woman holds a placard reading “You can’t shut up everyone!” as journalists and supporters take part in a protest against censorship in Moscow in September.

“Pskovskaya Guberniya tried to continue working under wartime conditions,” said the former editor in chief of the last independent media outlet in the northwestern Russian city of Pskov, Denis Kamalyagin. But on March 5, one day after Russia adopted draconian new laws on the “dissemination of information that discredits the armed forces of the Russian Federation,” OMON riot police showed up in force at the online newspaper’s offices.

“OMON put all these ‘dangerous criminals’ face down on the floor and ransacked the office over a supposed administrative offense,” Kamalyagin said. “Continuing to work after they confiscated all our equipment, after their threats, after they blocked our website and our social media channels was impossible…. There is no room for independent journalism in Russia.”