Russia

Russia ranked 172nd of 180 countries in the 2026 RSF World Press Freedom Index, with a score of 23.15, falling one position and 1.42 points from 171st and 24.57 in 2025. Only eight countries ranked lower.

Almost all independent Russian media have been banned, blocked or designated as foreign agents or undesirable organisations since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The remaining major outlets are owned by the state or Kremlin allies and operate under military censorship, with editorial staff receiving instructions from the presidential administration about subjects to cover or avoid.

Legal and administrative pressure on journalists continued to expand during the review period.

According to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights in Russia, drawing on Mass Media Defence Centre data, 42 Russian journalists were sentenced to prison terms of up to twelve years between July 2024 and July 2025. Criminal cases were opened against 89 journalists, compared with 23 in 2023. By 24 July 2025, OVD-Info had documented 1,386 cases of pressure on journalists and media workers since the start of the full-scale invasion, including blocking, closure, loss of registration, prosecution, searches, detention, threats and physical violence.

Legal persecution increasingly reaches journalists outside Russia. On 8 April 2025 the State Duma approved legislation permitting trials in absentia against exiled Russian nationals for offences including disseminating information deemed false about the armed forces and discrediting the military.

A further law, signed by President Vladimir Putin on 4 August 2026 and effective from the same day, authorises restrictions against Russians abroad who are on the foreign-agents register or are prosecuted for cooperation with undesirable organisations. Measures include freezing bank accounts, restricting property transactions, blocking access to public services and withholding some consular services. The vast majority of those affected are journalists.

Media professionals constitute more than one-third of the names on Russia’s foreign-agent and undesirable-organisation lists, and their number has increased sixfold since February 2022. Foreign agents face mandatory labelling and financial reporting, restrictions on employment and income, administrative penalties and potential criminal prosecution. Around 60 media professionals were also listed as terrorists or extremists by Russia’s financial-monitoring agency in July 2026.

The system rests partly on legislation enacted on 4 March 2022, under which publishing information about the armed forces that authorities deem knowingly false can be punished by up to fifteen years in prison.

More than 1,500 Russian journalists have left the country since February 2022. Ekho Moskvy was closed, TV Rain moved its principal operations abroad, and Novaya Gazeta faced the suspension of publication and loss of licences. On 4 September 2026 the Justice Ministry added Novaya Gazeta itself to the foreign-agents register.

State Media Monitor maps eighteen entries in Russia. None sits in the independent family.

Twelve are classified State-Controlled Media (SC). Eight have full profiles: the broadcasting corporation VGTRK; Public Television of Russia (OTR); the news agencies TASS and Rossiya Segodnya; the international network RT; the Ministry of Defence-linked broadcaster Zvezda; the government newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta; and the interstate broadcaster Mir. Four are listed without full profiles: InfoRos, the Strategic Culture Foundation, New Eastern Outlook and Oriental Review.

Three are classified Captured Public or State Managed/Owned Media (CaPu): Channel One, Gazprom-Media Holding and Argumenty i Fakty.

Three are classified Captured Private Media (CaPr): National Media Group, African Initiative and Tsargrad TV.

The mapped organisations have varied legal forms. VGTRK, TASS and Rossiya Segodnya are federal state unitary enterprises. OTR and RT are operated by autonomous non-commercial organisations. Rossiyskaya Gazeta is published by a federal state budgetary institution. Zvezda is operated through a joint-stock company within the Ministry of Defence-linked Krasnaya Zvezda holding. Mir combines an interstate founding agreement among Commonwealth of Independent States governments with incorporation in Russia as a joint-stock company. Argumenty i Fakty is owned at municipal level by the Government of Moscow.

Appointment powers demonstrate direct state control at several entries. The President appoints the senior executives of VGTRK, OTR and Rossiya Segodnya. At OTR the General Director also exercises editorial leadership. The Government appoints TASS’s Director General and dismissed its First Deputy Director General by prime-ministerial order in July 2025. Mir’s chairman is appointed by the CIS Council of Heads of Government.

The distinction between the three SMM classifications turns on ownership, governance and funding rather than editorial alignment alone.

Channel One’s federal-state holding is 34.23 per cent, accompanied by a golden share. State-controlled VTB holds 32.89 per cent, National Media Group 19.46 per cent and SOGAZ 13.42 per cent. State and state-controlled holdings therefore exceed two-thirds. Channel One is classified CaPu because it combines public control with a predominantly commercial funding model.

Gazprom-Media is controlled through state-linked corporate ownership but operates principally on commercial revenue. Argumenty i Fakty is municipally owned but predominantly advertising-funded. National Media Group, African Initiative and Tsargrad TV have private ownership structures combined with documented state-linked editorial control.

Cross-holdings connect parts of the mapped set. TASS holds 6.11 per cent of Channel One and National Media Group holds 19.46 per cent. Rossiya Segodnya and RT are legally separate organisations but share an Editor-in-Chief, Margarita Simonyan.

Federal financing is substantial. Identified programme lines in the enacted 2026 federal budget include approximately RUB 32.25 billion for RT, RUB 11.179 billion for Rossiya Segodnya, RUB 5.108 billion for TASS, RUB 4.248 billion for Rossiyskaya Gazeta, RUB 1.984 billion for Zvezda and RUB 1.8 billion for OTR. These are programme-line appropriations and should not necessarily be treated as complete organisation-wide totals. VGTRK receives support through multiple lines that cannot be combined into a single comparable figure without reconciling their respective scopes.

Across the mapped set, State Media Monitor identified no effective independent governance or enforcement mechanism capable of protecting editorial autonomy from the relevant state or state-linked controller.

International restrictions affect much of the mapped network. The European Union has suspended the broadcasting and distribution activities of 27 Russian outlets, including Russia-1, Russia-24, RTR-Planeta, Zvezda, Channel One, RIA Novosti, RT, Sputnik, Rossiyskaya Gazeta, New Eastern Outlook, Oriental Review, the Strategic Culture Foundation and Tsargrad TV. The United Kingdom’s communications regulator revoked RT’s broadcasting licence in March 2022. Ofcom cited RT’s relationship with the Russian state, its public financing, a previous GBP 200,000 fine and twenty-nine pending investigations into due impartiality. In September 2024 the United States Department of State designated Rossiya Segodnya and five associated entities — RIA Novosti, RT, TV-Novosti, Ruptly and Sputnik — as foreign missions. The Treasury Department separately imposed financial sanctions on individuals and entities involved in Russian influence operations and reported that senior RT personnel had briefed or reported to Russian government officials.

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