Editing Vladimir Putin (section)

=== The media ===
{{See also|Mass media in Russia|Media freedom in Russia|Propaganda in Russia}}
[[File:Interview with Vladimir Putin to Tucker Carlson (2024-02-06) 04.jpg|thumb|Putin [[Tucker Carlson's interview with Vladimir Putin|being interviewed]] by [[Tucker Carlson]] on 6 February 2024]]
Scott Gehlbach, a professor of Political Science at the [[University of Wisconsin–Madison]], has claimed that since 1999, Putin has systematically punished journalists who challenge his official point of view.<ref>Scott Gehlbach, "Reflections on Putin and the Media". ''Post-Soviet Affairs'' 26#1 (2010): 77–87.</ref> [[Maria Lipman]], an American writing in ''[[Foreign Affairs]]'' claims, "The crackdown that followed Putin's return to the Kremlin in 2012 extended to the liberal media, which had until then been allowed to operate fairly independently".<ref>{{#invoke:cite|news|author-link = Maria Lipman |title = How Putin Silences Dissent: Inside the Kremlin's Crackdown |work = Foreign Affairs |volume = 95#1 |year = 2016 |page = 38 }}</ref> The Internet has attracted Putin's attention because his critics have tried to use it to challenge his control of information.<ref>Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan, ''The Red Web: The Struggle Between Russia's Digital Dictators and the New Online Revolutionaries'' (2015).</ref> Marian K. Leighton, who worked for the [[CIA]] as a Soviet analyst in the 1980s says, "Having muzzled Russia's print and broadcast media, Putin focused his energies on the Internet".<ref>Marian K. Leighton, "Muzzling the Russian Media Again." (2016): 820–826.</ref>

Robert W. Orttung and Christopher Walker reported that "[[Reporters Without Borders]], for instance, ranked Russia 148 in its 2013 list of 179 countries in terms of freedom of the press. It particularly criticized Russia for the crackdown on the political opposition and the failure of the authorities to vigorously pursue and bring to justice criminals who have murdered journalists. [[Freedom House]] ranks Russian media as "not free", indicating that basic safeguards and guarantees for journalists and media enterprises are absent.<ref>Robert W. Orttung and Christopher Walker, "Putin and Russia's crippled media". ''Russian Analytical Digest'' 21.123 (2013): 2–6 [http://mercury.ethz.ch/serviceengine/Files/ISN/160446/ipublicationdocument_singledocument/121e51db-ebb0-430c-86f8-884fe87a38e8/en/Russian_Analytical_Digest_123.pdf online] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916100337/http://mercury.ethz.ch/serviceengine/Files/ISN/160446/ipublicationdocument_singledocument/121e51db-ebb0-430c-86f8-884fe87a38e8/en/Russian_Analytical_Digest_123.pdf |date=16 September 2016}}</ref> About two-thirds of Russians use television as their primary source of daily news,<ref>{{#invoke:cite|news|last1=Goncharenko |first1=Roman |title=Russia's TV war against Ukraine |url=https://www.dw.com/en/how-russian-media-outlets-are-preparing-an-attack-on-ukraine/a-60801837 |work=Deutsche Welle |date=16 February 2022}}</ref> while around 85% of Russians get most of their information from Russian state media.<ref name="Time-Stengel">{{cite magazine |last1=Stengel |first1=Richard |date=20 May 2022 |title=Putin May Be Winning the Information War Outside of the U.S. and Europe |url=https://time.com/6179221/putin-information-war-column/ |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|TIME]]}}</ref>

In the early 2000s, Putin and his circle began promoting the idea in Russian media that they are the modern-day version of the 17th-century [[House of Romanov|Romanov]] tsars who ended Russia's "[[Time of Troubles]]", meaning they claim to be the peacemakers and stabilizers after the fall of the Soviet Union.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Levin |first=Eve |date=Fall 2011 |title=Muscovy and Its Mythologies |journal=Kritika: Explorations in Russian & Eurasian History |volume=12 |issue=4 |pages=773–788 |doi=10.1353/kri.2011.0058 |s2cid=159746900 |issn=1531-023X}}</ref> Since the 2022 Ukraine invasion, Putin has [[Tucker Carlson's interview with Vladimir Putin|only once]] granted an interview to a Western journalist, namely [[Tucker Carlson]] in February 2024.<ref name="NYTimesInfo">{{Cite web |last1=Troianovski |first1=Anton |author-link1=Anton Troianovski |last2=Rutenberg |first2=Jim |author-link2=Jim Rutenberg |last3=Sonne |first3=Paul |date=6 February 2024 |title=Tucker Carlson Says His Putin Interview Will Be Shown on Thursday |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/06/world/europe/tucker-carlson-putin-interview.html |access-date=8 February 2024 |work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref>