arrested since the invasion began. it s been getting increasingly difficult to cover the protest because the russian state is blocking access to major for news outlets and president vladimir putin signed a law that makes a criminal for a journalist even called the invasion of ukraine a war. peter pomerantsev has been covering this utopian reality of russia for years. adventures in the war against a senior fellow studying disinformation and propaganda at john absconds university. he joins me now. peter, can you talk about what you see as a significance to a place that already didn t really have much of a free press being cracked down on so heavily? in just the last few weeks? well, they didn t have much of a free press but it wasn t like a cold war system. he had internet access. anything you want it if you are ready to search for it. there was a small group of very plucky, very brave independent