headlines: Blinken and Lavrov Discuss Griner in Their First Call of the War
articles: Russia routinely denies well-documented atrocities, its own losses and even its role as the aggressor. It outlawed any negative description of its “special military operation,” including calling it a war. Within Russia, the Kremlin has near-total control of information, with independent news outlets having shut down rather than face prosecution.
  
  Novaya Gazeta, one of the most prominent and last remaining of those outlets, reported Thursday that the Russian authorities have gone to court to strip its license. Novaya Gazeta — whose editor, Dmitri A. Muratov, shared the Nobel Peace Prize last year for defending free expression — suspended operations in March rather than face prosecution, but unlike many others, it did not dissolve.
  
  Western officials have repeatedly accused Russia of using food as leverage in the war, a claim the Kremlin denies. In addition to blockading ports, the main conduit for Ukrainian food exports, Russian forces have struck farms and food storage facilities, and seized grain. Russia’s own food exports have fallen sharply, too, which it blames on Western sanctions dissuading companies from carrying or insuring Russian shipments.
  
  The resulting shortages helped drive food prices up sharply. This spring the price of wheat futures were more than double what they were a year earlier, though they have since declined somewhat.