; and (E) Mikhail Afanasyev, editor-in-chief of the online magazine Novy Fokus, who was arrested and charged with spreading false information about the Russian military in April 2022; (2) relying on restrictive legislation, including a repressive foreign agents law, as justification to harass, fine, and freeze the assets of media organizations, including Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and shuttering independent news outlets as foreign agents , such as Novaya Gazeta, a landmark independent newspaper founded in 1993, which suspended operations in Russia in March 2022 after receiving warnings from the authorities citing the country’s foreign agents law, and was stripped of its print and online media licenses in September 2022; (3) arresting and detaining journalists covering peaceful protests, and intensifying already widespread harassment, repression, and government-driven retaliation, including 22 journalists being imprisoned as of April 6, 2023, according to Reporters Without Borders, 9 of whom were arrested since the beginning of the war of aggression against Ukraine; (4) allegedly kidnapping, torturing, detaining, and disappearing journalists in Russian-controlled territories of Ukraine, including Amet Suleimanov, Asan Akhmetov, Iryna Danylovych, Marlen Asanov, Nariman Celal, Oleksiy Bessarabov, Osman Arifmemetov, Remzi Bekirov, Ruslan Suleimanov, Rustem Sheikhaliev, Server Mustafayev, Seyran Salievn, Timur Ibragimov, and Vladyslav Yesypenko; and (5) excessive blocking of internet access and applications, including independent news sites, social media platforms, and other tools Russian citizens rely on to access independent information and opinions and to connect with each other and the outside world, including Meduza, a leading independent Russian-language news website based outside of Russia, which was labeled undesirable in January 2023 and de facto banned by Russian authorities