From 2002 to

2015, Russia has

been scored on their Freedom of Press, 0 being the best and 100 being the worst. Its clear that
Russia has always been over the halfway point, at least since its been recorded. From left to
right, the graph shows the scores over the years as seen in the key to the right. Russia's rating
increased greatly in 2003 because of the closure of the last independent national television
broadcaster, negative state influence over public and private media, and repeated attacks
against journalists. An increase in 2004 is because, during the March presidential election
campaign, the internet space was controlled mostly by President Putin. National television did
not let opponents of Putin televise their campaigns through censorship and refusal to broadcast
them. With the Beslan hostage crisis, Chechnya, and all the corruption in the government, many
reporters were killed in 2004 for voicing their opinions. The score is at an all time high in 2015
because Russias seizure of the Crimean Peninsula and involvement in the conflict in eastern
Ukraine instigated an increase in propagandistic content in the Russian news media, thus
putting tighter restrictions on opposing views. On the Freedom House website, it also shows
three other categories and their scores: Legal, political, and economic environment. The scores
of the legal environment have increased from okay to really bad over the years also due to Putin
signing laws into place that restrict even more things like two new laws that took effect in 2014
significantly extended state control over the online sphere, Federal Law No. 398 which allows
the blocking of any websites that call for mass riots, extremist activities, and participation in
illegal assemblies. And also, Federal Law No. 97, nicknamed the bloggers law, which requires
any blog or website with more than 3,000 daily viewers to register with Roskomnadzor as a
media outlet. The political environment is bad because most of the national news and media is
controlled by the Kremlin, which puts restrictions on many things. The Kremlin is also one of the
many reasons why Russia cannot be considered a real democracy. Lastly, the economic
environment is bad because the authorities exert significant influence over the information
landscape through a vast state-owned media empire. The state owns, either directly or through
proxies, all five of the major national television networks, as well as national radio networks,
important national newspapers, and national news agencies. Also, a law signed in October 2014
will restrict foreign ownership stakes in Russian media assets to 20 percent by early 2017.
Between 2012 and 2014, Russia placed 148th in the list.