Conde Nast shuts down Vogue Russia over censorship laws in the country amid war in Ukraine

The ramifications of the war on Ukraine has been felt many sectors in Russia, and in a new development, Conde Nast has terminated its franchise agreement with Conde Nast Russia, which has led to Vogue Russia‘s closure.
Simply put, Vogue Russia has ceased publishing, because of increasingly strict censorship laws following the war, an Independent report states.

According to the report, the magazine’s publishing in Russia has become “untenable”. CEO Roger Lynch wrote in a memo to staff that the decision was triggered the “senseless war” that Russia started in the neighbouring Ukraine earlier this year.

“As the war has waged on, the escalation in the severity of the censorship laws, which have significantly curtailed free speech and punished reporters simply for doing their jobs, has made our work in Russia untenable,” he wrote.
The magazine was started in 1998 and Lynch said — as mentioned in the report — that the “continued atrocities brought on this unprovoked war and the related censorship laws have made it impossible for [them] to continue operating there”.
An official announcement was made on social media as well, wherein a statement Vogue Russia read, “Dear readers, we are suspending all kinds of broadcasts on our platforms until further notice. All previously published pieces are still available on vogue.ru. Thanks for your support.”

Lynch’s memo also informed that about 10 per cent of the Vogue Russia staff shall remain to “fulfil certain outstanding obligations”. “Words simply cannot express how difficult this time is for so many,” he continued, adding: “What’s been weighing heavily on my mind is our staff who did not choose this war, and yet continue to bear some of its consequences. I’m extremely grateful to our teams in Russia for their many years of dedication in building great publications there that have lived up to the highest standards of Conde Nast.”

After waging war in Ukraine in February this year, Russian president Vladimir Putin passed a law that criminalised the use of the words like ‘war’ and ‘invasion’, calling what the government is doing a ‘special military operation’.
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