On March 4 th Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law that could subject any journalist who deviates from the Kremlin's guidelines on the Ukraine war to a 15-year prison sentence. Russian officials claimed that the United States and its Western European allies are spreading disinformation in an attem communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, already blocked Meta Platform Inc's (FB.O) Facebook, citing 26 cases of discrimination against Russian media. As a consequence of these measures, global news media, such as BBC Britain and Bloomberg News decided to suspend reporting in Russia to protect their journalists at least until they assess the full implications of the new laws.