Russia has placed Reporters Without Borders on a list of "undesirable organizations," which in practice means that this media watchdog is banned from operating in the country.
Under a controversial law passed in 2015 but rarely used before Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia can ban foreign organizations it considers a threat to national security.
Staff of these organizations who are declared "undesirable" risk criminal prosecution.
The Kremlin has intensified its decade-long crackdown on independent media after sending troops to Ukraine in 2022, passing censorship laws that ban criticism of the military.
Reporters Without Borders, based in France, constantly denounces attacks on freedom of expression and assists persecuted journalists.
Just last month, a Russian court sentenced a journalist and former volunteer for the late opposition leader Ales Navalny – whose organizations have been declared “extremist” in Russia – to 12 years in prison.
Reporters Without Borders described her imprisonment as a "symbol of the Kremlin's suppression of independent voices" and called for her release, as it has for all journalists arrested in Russia.
The Russian Justice Ministry's list of "undesirable" entities so far includes around 250 organizations, including Radio Free Europe, Amnesty International, Greenpeace and Yale University./REL
