The Kremlin is tightening its grip over what Russians can do and see online, making it harder for outlets like the BBC to reach their audiences.
For the past 80 years, BBC Russian has sought to bypass those restrictions, which for decades featured jamming of its short-wave radio broadcasts and now involve blocking its website.
The latest restrictions in Russia have included widespread mobile internet outages and a reported plan to block the Telegram news and messaging app.
On 24 March 1946, the BBC started its first regular radio broadcast in the Russian language, aiming to provide listeners behind the Iron Curtain in the Soviet Union an alternative to state propaganda.
By 1949, jamming of the signal was already the norm.
For almost half the 20th Century, Soviet people had to jump through hoops to listen to foreign broadcasts, and for some it was truly a sport, remembers Natalia Rubinstein, an ex-BBC presenter and former resident of Leningrad.
We really wanted to know what was being hidden from us, she says.
Rubinstein recalls how people who enjoyed cross-country skiing would take their radios into the countryside where there were fewer jammers.
I still have this picture before my eyes: a person leaning on a tree, with ski poles next to him, listening to the radio somehow nestled on their chest, she recalls.
Jamming of foreign broadcasts was pioneered by Nazi Germany during World War Two, using noise or signals from more powerful transmitters located closer to the listeners.
During the Cold War, the BBC would repeat its 90-minute Russian-language bulletin three times a week, so people could listen at least once.
Not every broadcast was blocked. According to a CIA memo from 1960, stories about life in Britain or the US went on air without interference, but discussions of global conflicts or reports on the economic and political life in the Socialist bloc were always jammed.
Occasionally BBC Russian succeeded in outfoxing the jammers. Peter Udell, who ran the BBC's East European service, recalls the moment Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev died in 1982.
We went off air in Russian as usual at midnight, Moscow time. And then a few minutes later, unexpectedly for the jamming teams, we popped up again with a special program on Brezhnev's death, Udell said.
In the decades that followed, BBC Russian managed to establish a more significant presence, with listeners tuning in live to UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher answering their questions in a groundbreaking broadcast in 1988.
As Russia initiated a brutal war in Ukraine, BBC Russian's audience soared, highlighting the need for credible news sources amid the chaos.
However, the Kremlin's aggressive censorship strategies have resulted in the blocking of BBC's website and restrictive new laws criminalizing dissent and independent reporting.
Despite these challenges, BBC Russian continues to adapt its strategies to ensure access to information remains possible. The service currently reaches approximately 12 million people a week, demonstrating the enduring demand for independent journalism in a heavily controlled media landscape.
Jenny Norton, head of BBC News Russian, expressed the increasing isolation of their service but underscores its vital role for a new generation of Russians seeking information.
