Russia’s media regulator Roskomnadzor wants to prevent the publication of an interview with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. “Roskomnadzor is notifying Russian media about the need to refrain from publishing the interview,” the agency said in Moscow on Sunday. Roskomnadzor also announced a review of all media outlets conducting the Zelensky interview to determine “the extent of responsibility and response measures.”
Among the Russian journalists who recently spoke to Zelenskyy via video link was a reporter from the well-known Moscow daily Kommersant. The media Meduza and Doschd, whose pages are already blocked in Russia anyway, were represented. The Meduza portal published the approximately one-and-a-half-hour interview on Sunday evening, despite the warning from the media regulator, which can still be reached via alternative internet connections and from abroad.
The editor-in-chief of the radio station Echo Moskwy, which has also already been closed, Alexei Venediktov, criticized on Telegram that the Russian media regulator did not even give reasons for its actions. Selenskyj is after all the legitimate president of Ukraine – the Kremlin has always confirmed this, wrote Venediktov.