russians Will No Longer Be Able to Choose News

In russia, the last vestiges of free speech are being completely eradicated: the authorities plan to forcibly integrate a “national news platform” based on vk’s “zen”, into every popular website and app, so they can personally decide exactly what news russians will see.

The vk holding company (the same one that actively promotes the “national messenger” Max and is headed by the son of the first deputy chief of staff of the presidential administration sergey kirienko) proposes to transform its “zen” – a former blogging platform – into an official state news machine. A draft law to enshrine this is scheduled to be submitted for consideration as early as May 2026. Once passed, all major russian websites, marketplaces, video services, social networks, and search engines will be required to integrate a special “zen” widget.

On social media and search engines, russians will see the “top five news stories” on the homepage, and on video platforms – a button linking to the “top 15”. What exactly makes the cut will be decided not by the market or editorial teams, but directly by the russian government. Specifically, the cabinet of ministers will approve a list of “allowed” media outlets and appoint a single platform operator for a five-year term.

This whole scheme is, of course, presented as being “in good faith”, supposedly to save non-state federal media outlets from closure. In reality, it is simply a redistribution of money and control. Ads will appear in the widget, 50% of the revenue from which will go to the platform that hosted them, while the rest will be split up: part – “to support the media,” part – to some mysterious association, and where the other 40% will go – the vk presentation delicately left that out.

It looks especially cynical that this whole scheme is being promoted by entities closely linked to the russian government. vk is not an independent company, but a typical kremlin-controlled holding company that has long served the regime’s interests. Now it will gain another powerful lever: the forced distribution of “correct” news and an additional stream of advertising revenue.

In fact, russians are being subjected to a total information vacuum: instead of any opportunity to independently choose sources of information, they will be fed carefully filtered state-controlled content wherever they spend time online. Freedom of speech in the rf is finally turning into a privilege reserved for those whom the kremlin allows to speak.