During the Soviet Era, information was controlled by the state, and there was a lot of censorship, propaganda, and misinformation. After the end of the Cold War the new Constitution of the Russian Federation, in Article 29, “stipulated the right of every person to seek, get, transfer, produce and disseminate information by any legal means”. Despite this, there is still suppression of information and speech.
According to a report by the Institute For Freedom of Information in 2010, only 11% of Russians believe that they have freedom of Information.
Institution of Freedom of Development – An Overview of Russia
http://freedominfo.org/documents/russia_report_summary.pdf