For the past 18 years, Russian journalist Tania Felgengauer has tried to expose the truth about Vladimir Putin and his administration, but last week the Moscow radio station she works for was silenced.
"First, we lost our radio signal and it was without any warning, without any papers, without anything," she told the ABC.
"It was a political decision of the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin … he decided to shut them down as [with] many other professional and free media."
Felgengauer is the deputy editor and morning show presenter at the liberal radio station, Echo of Moscow.
Set up in 1990, the station played a critical role in exposing the attempted coup against Mikhail Gorbachev in 1991, despite being shut down four times in three days.
Now it has been forced off-air again after it refused to follow the Kremlin's orders about how to report on Russia's war in Ukraine.
After their signal was cut, the station tried to keep operating online. But ultimately the station's board felt they had no choice but to cease broadcasting to protect their journalists from sweeping new laws.
A bill that passed parliament on Friday imposes prison sentences of up to 15 years for those spreading "fake news" about the Russian military.
'I did my best to stop this man'
Felgengauer is one of Moscow's best known and most fearless radio presenters. She nearly died in 2017 after she was stabbed in the neck by an intruder who made it inside the radio station.
Now, with the closure of her beloved workplace and new laws criminalising journalism and free speech, she said she felt like she was facing another type of death.
"I feel like I'm dying, because right now I'm here in my office and I came to take my stuff and my employment documents, and I know that this was my past and this is my present and I hoped it could be my future. But now it's gone," she said.
"And I'm really, really sorry for this situation because I know that, of course, it's not my fault. I did my best to stop this man who took my country. I really did my best to stop him, but I failed."
Echo of Moscow and the TV station Dozhd (Rain) were the first media organisations to be targeted in this most recent crackdown, but not the last.
Fears ordinary Russians could be jailed for speaking of the 'war'
One of the last remaining independent Russian media outlets, Mediazona, has also been shut down.
In a statement, Mediazona said: "Roskomnadzor (the media regulator) began blocking Mediazona because we cover honestly what is happening in Ukraine and call the invasion an invasion, and the war a war."
Meanwhile, the Russian government has imposed blocks on five foreign outlets: the BBC, the US government-funded Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, German broadcaster Deutsche Welle and Latvia-based website Meduza.
Other organisations such as CNN, Bloomberg and CBS News have paused their reporting inside Russia in light of the new laws.
Access to Twitter and Facebook has also been restricted. The regulator cited the social media companies' failure to delete content banned by Russian authorities or alleged "discrimination" against Russian media and state information resources for its decision.
But there are fears the new laws about "fake news" could also impact the free speech of everyday Russians.
"[The laws are] not only about journalism, it's about everyone in Russia, because it's not about media, it's about any information you share in your social media, or even if you send the message," Felgengauer said.
"So what do you? Keep silent about this terrible war or go to prison? It's very simple. So you just need to choose."
With Mr Putin silencing dissent about his war in Ukraine, many Russians are now contemplating whether they still have a future in the country.
Fears laws will prevent Russians from accessing information on the war
On Friday, under the cover of darkness, Alexey Kovalyov, the investigations editor at the popular news website Meduza, left Russia.
He crossed the border by foot, fearing martial law was about to be introduced.
Despite the new laws, he did not want to leave his homeland while he was still covering one of the biggest stories of his career.
"I would probably have stayed because as a journalist, you don't get a second chance to cover an event like this firsthand … but my wife was insistent," he said.
"She was right because [the following day] there were no flights out of Moscow, with European airspace closing and whatever remaining flights out of Moscow, being diverted mid-air."
He believes the new laws that threaten 15 years in prison for "fake news" about the armed forces will stop many Russians from finding out what is really going on in the war in Ukraine.
"This law effectively criminalises our work because this law effectively abolishes freedom of the press in Russia. From now on, you're only legally allowed to report on this war without calling it war in the first place," he said.
"Also, you're only allowed to report about it, by basically repeating what the defence minister says and nothing else. So you cannot question the reports about troop movements, about casualties, about civilian areas of Ukrainian cities being shelled by bombs and rockets."
Meduza's original business model was undermined by the Kremlin last year when it declared the publication a "foreign agent", making it virtually impossible to get Russian advertisers.
Now it relies on donations from readers, which are likely to be heavily reduced by sanctions from the West which target the banking system.
On Friday, Meduza received confirmation from Russia's media regulator that it was forcing internet service providers to block access to its website.
The website has vowed to keep publishing and find a way to survive from its head office in Latvia.
Kovalyov said it was important that independent media keep fighting, to counter what he called "state media propaganda" and to hold Vladimir Putin to account.
"I'm doing this for the historical record. Because hopefully somewhere in the future, someone will be held responsible for this and I will be providing the evidence."
