On 29 February 2024, a court in Moscow fined Sergey Sokolov, the editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta, one of the country’s last independent media outlets continuing operations within Russia. Sokolov was fined 30 thousand rubles on grounds of allegedly “discrediting” the Russian armed forces. According to the court, the editor “discredited” the Russian army by publishing a post on Telegram in December, in which he claimed that the Russian military was trying to persuade orphans to join the army and fight in Ukraine. Earlier in the day, Sokolov was detained by police and brought to a court, which then issued the fine. Sokolov became the editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta in November, following a decision by Russian authorities to designate the previous editor, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dmitry Muratov, as a “foreign agent”.