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Posted: 2022-03-04T02:08:40Z | Updated: 2022-03-04T02:22:59Z

One of Russias last independent news outlets took a stance for peace and made a powerful historical allusion in its last moments.

TV Rain, described by The New York Times as a youthful independent television station, announced Thursday that it would stop operating indefinitely under intense pressure from the Kremlin.

Russias telecommunications regulator had already blocked TV Rain earlier in the week, and some of the stations employees have fled the country out of fear for their own safety, the Times reported. On Thursday, the outlet delivered its final show, which aired on YouTube.

No to war, Natalia Sindeyeva, one of TV Rains founders, said as the stations employees walked out of the studio.

The station then began playing Tchaikovskys Swan Lake a reference that many well-versed in Russian history recognized.

The staff of the Independent Russian TV station 'Dozhd' (TV Rain) resigned during a live stream with last words: no war and then played Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake echoing the same from Soviet state TV in August of 1991. pic.twitter.com/OHGgaNOZef

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The staff of the Independent Russian TV station 'Dozhd' (TV Rain) resigned during a live stream with last words: no war and then played Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake echoing the same from Soviet state TV in August of 1991. pic.twitter.com/OHGgaNOZef

(@drex) March 3, 2022

As NPR noted in a piece earlier this year about the significance of Swan Lake in Russian political history, Soviet state TV aired the ballet on a loop after the death of Premier Leonid Brezhnev while a new party leader was being selected. It did the same following the deaths of Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko.

Then, in 1991, Soviet TV aired the ballet during the attempt to overthrow President Mikhail Gorbachev a failed coup that helped precipitate the collapse of the Soviet Union .

Thats it. @tvrain is gone. What were the final images the famed TV station chose to broadcast? There was only ever one option, of course. pic.twitter.com/mpEZuJqCAB

Kevin Rothrock (@KevinRothrock) March 3, 2022","type":"rich","meta":{"author":"Kevin Rothrock","author_url":"https://twitter.com/KevinRothrock","cache_age":86400,"description":"Thats it. @tvrain is gone. What were the final images the famed TV station chose to broadcast? 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Thats it. @tvrain is gone. What were the final images the famed TV station chose to broadcast? There was only ever one option, of course. pic.twitter.com/mpEZuJqCAB

Kevin Rothrock (@KevinRothrock) March 3, 2022

There are well-founded fears that reporting any news diverging from the official government line in Russia could result in prison time or worse.

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Just before TV Rain cut to Swan Lake on Thursday, a disclaimer flashed on screen stating the show was the work of a foreign agent. That became a requirement for the station back in August, when Russias justice ministry declared TV Rain a foreign agent a designation editor-in-chief Tikhon Dzyadko vehemently denied in the lead-up to a parliamentary election.