Vladimir Putin’s regime is imposing “increasingly draconian restrictions” on citizens’ abilities to access international media, according to the UK.

According to the UK’s ministry of defence (MoD), the Russian courts are imposing significant fines on journalists – or readers – of media outlets the Kremlin sees as “undesirable”.

That means organisations who do not report on Moscow’s preferred narrative towards the Ukraine war, which Kremlin continues to call “the special military operation”.

In 2024, the Russian courts fined the Latvia-based Meduza and the US funded Radio Liberty as well as exiled Russian TV channel Dozhd.

“This activity fits with a pattern of increased Russian government efforts to control the media and further restrict freedom of speech,” since Putin invaded Ukraine, the MoD officials said in their latest update on X.

The MoD said this crackdown is due to the Russian president’s “heightened leadership sensitivity” about how his ongoing war in the Ukraine may impact the Russian public. 

The MoD continued: “The fines are almost certainly intended to deter independent media outlets from reporting anything that contradicts or criticises official Russian narratives regarding the Russia-Ukraine conflict.”

The fines are also meant to “deter or intimidate” any individuals who are involved with independent media and who try to reject the government-controlled depiction of events.

It also extends to anything from international outlets. 

The MoD said: “Most independent Russian media has been shuttered or forced abroad and the Russian government has instituted and enforced increasingly draconian restrictions on citizens’ abilities to access foreign media.

“Russian efforts to constrain independent media will highly likely continue throughout the conflict, reflecting heightened leadership sensitivity to the conflict’s inherent potential to impact regime stability.”

The president has suppressed citizens’ freedoms since the war started in 2022 by cranking up censorship laws and preventing public protests. 

The 2024 presidential election was also widely seen as rigged.

However, Putin clearly still fears losing Russia’s public support over the war, judging by his refusal to announce conscription even though his troops’ casualty rate is exceptionally high.

After Russians started to flee the country over Putin’s attempt to partially mobilise 300,000 reservists in September 2022, the Kremlin has been careful to avoid forcing the public up to the frontline.

Instead it is now relying on North Korean troops to bolster its ranks.