Putin’s crackdown: how Russia’s journalists became ‘foreign agents’

Will an oppressive new law stifle independent media outlets - or lead to a weakening of the president's authoritarian regime?

Usually the bad news is dumped late on Friday when most Muscovites are heading out for the evening: a new list of names of journalists and outlets declared foreign agents", a label that for some Russians evokes such Soviet-era terms as enemy of the people" and has sent a chill through newsrooms under threat.

We are being told that we are the enemy," said Tikhon Dzyadko, the editor of Dozhd, Russia's main independent television station and a recent addition to the list. And I am not an enemy and I am not an agent. It's a spit in the face."