By STEVEN LEE MYERS, APRIL 2, 2016 President Vladimir V. Putin with Mikhail Y. Lesin in 2002, when Mr. Lesin was minister of the press and instrumental in Mr. Putin’s efforts to wrest control over national television networks from the tycoons who controlled...

n a few days Russia’s last remotely independent radio station could be silenced. Ever since the country’s energy conglomerate Gazprom took a majority holding, Ekho Moskvy (Echo of Moscow) has battled against censorship. The station’s editor in chief,...