Independent news sources are rare in Russia, especially with the recent law making "misinformation" a jailable offense with up to 15 years jail time. I'm not saying there isn't any other news sources, but it legitimately seems like you have to go well out of your way to find them. How many Americans are digging into different news sources to see if the narrative on Ukraine is true or if it's all a western farce? Just the same many Russians aren't double checking the narrative they're being fed
I'm not in Russia, obviously, but from what I can gather from social media, although outside media is "banned", it's still easy enough to find. Similarly to how easy I can still find RT (or worse).