Source: www.forum18.org
Date: October 4, 2024
https://www.forum18.org/archiv
By Victoria Arnold, Forum 18
The regime's ever-increasing internet censorship has seen religious
websites and materials blocked for: "extremist" content; opposition to
Russia's war against Ukraine from a religious perspective; and material
supporting LGBT+ people in religious communities. Also blocked are
Ukraine-based religious websites, social media of prosecuted individuals,
and news and NGO sites which include coverage of freedom of religion or
belief violations.
This denies local people freedom of expression in religion-related matters
and the opportunity freely to seek information and views on religious
issues. It also has a chilling effect on those considering publishing their
views on issues related to religion which the regime dislikes.
Many of the blocked religious-related websites are listed at the foot of
this article.
Internet users in parts of Ukraine Russia has illegally occupied face the
same Roskomnadzor blocking that users face within Russia's internationally
recognised boundaries.
Communications regulator Roskomnadzor blocks access to websites
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
foreign sites remove information deemed to threaten state security or
public order in Russia, monitors (with the security services) the use of
social media, and is exploring the use of artificial intelligence to make
all these processes more efficient.
Websites may be blocked specifically for their religious content
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
associated with material or religious organisations which courts have
already outlawed as "extremist", as in the case of Jehovah's Witnesses'
sites and even Wikipedia pages about them. This also includes sites
supporting LGBT+ people in religious communities (see below).
The majority of religious sites, however, have become subject to "military"
censorship since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022,
with any opposition to the war being taken as grounds for preventing access
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
individuals who have been prosecuted for protesting against the war in
religious terms or from a religious perspective have found their social
media profiles blocked by order of Roskomnadzor (see below).
Roskomnadzor has also blocked a large number of websites of media outlets,
civil society organisations, and human rights groups
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
on violations of freedom of religion and belief. While their coverage of
such issues is not typically the reason for the blocking, restricting
access to their work on religious freedom further reduces the space for
discussion of the topic inside Russia (see below).
Beyond their immediate impact, the concrete measures state agencies take to
restrict access to online information also has a chilling effect on freedom
of expression in general, with Freedom House noting in its 2023 report on
Russia (https://freedomhouse.org/coun
increase in self-censorship when writing about "controversial" topics.
The majority of religious websites now inaccessible in Russia (without a
VPN) appear to have been blocked "openly" – that is, Roskomnadzor has
added them to the publicly searchable registry of sites
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
internet providers are obliged to prevent their customers from seeing.
A few, however, are not in the registry, yet still appear to be
inaccessible (https://www.forum18.org/archi
or all internet users inside Russia. It is unclear why this might be – it
is possible that such sites have fallen victim to the filtering of internet
traffic through Roskomnadzor's "technical means of countering threats"
(TSPUs – see below), that smaller, local internet providers may be
blocking access or having technical problems, or in the case of sites
hosted abroad, the websites' servers may be blocking access requests from
Russia.
Forum 18 wrote to Roskomnadzor and its subsidiary, the Main Radio Frequency
Centre on 25 September, to ask:
- why sites are blocked for the expression of religious opinions, including
on war in general or the war in Ukraine;
- why sites are being blocked without being added to the publicly
searchable registry;
- as well as to ask for clarification of technical details of blocking.
Roskomnadzor Press Service's response of 26 September did not answer Forum
18's questions and asked which sites Forum 18 was referring to.
==============================
BLOCKED RELIGIOUS-RELATED WEBSITES
The list of some of the blocked religious-related websites below is based
on searches of Roskomnadzor's Unified Registry, use of internet censorship
monitoring services (such as Roskomsvoboda and GlobalCheck), and reports by
site owners and users.
Religious websites blocked for "extremist" content
Since the mid-2000s, courts in Russia have had literature associated with
Jehovah's Witnesses and with late Turkish Islamic theologian Said Nursi
ruled "extremist" and added to the Justice Ministry's Federal List of
Extremist Materials (https://www.forum18.org/archi
In 2008, the Supreme Court outlawed "Nurdzhular"
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
on Nursi's teachings which Muslims in Russia deny has ever existed as a
formal entity, leading to prosecutions for "continuing the activity of an
extremist organisation" of people who meet to study Nursi's works.
In 2017, the Supreme Court banned and ordered liquidated the Jehovah's
Witness Administrative Centre
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
entities – subsequently, nearly 800 Jehovah's Witnesses have also faced
prosecution for "continuing the activity of a banned extremist
organisation".
Roskomnadzor has consequently blocked websites hosting the literature of
the Jehovah's Witness and Said Nursi, or otherwise linked to them. It has
also blocked sites containing other religious texts which appear on the
Federal List of Extremist Materials
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
Blocks sometimes appear to lead to the complete demise of websites. In
multiple cases, site owners either deleted them or ceased to pay hosting
fees, allowing domain names to become defunct. In such cases, the blocked
addresses are put up for sale again by hosting providers (sometimes leading
to Roskomnadzor unblocking the addresses) and are often taken over by
gambling, dating, or pornography sites.
Name: Jehovah's Witnesses
Address: https://www.jw.org
Date of block: 2 April 2015
Requesting agency: Central District Court, Tver; Kurgalinsky District
Court, Krasnodar Region
Background: the main international site of the Jehovah's Witnesses,
available in over 1,000 languages, including Russian – Tver City
Prosecutor's Office initially had the website ordered blocked on 7 August
2013 on the grounds that it contained literature banned as extremist, but
the Jehovah's Witnesses successfully challenged this ruling; the blocking
order was reinstated after prosecutors appealed to the Supreme Court
(another district court issued a separate blocking order on 27 July 2020).
Name: Jehovah's Witnesses: Legal Situation in Russia
Address: https://www.jw-russia.org
Date of block: 30 August 2019 (with www.); 6 December 2019
Requesting agency: Central District Court, Tyumen; Nalchik City Court,
Kabardino-Balkariya
Background: site run by the European Association of Jehovah's Witnesses to
chronicle prosecutions of Jehovah's Witnesses and other legal issues in
Russia; two separate blocking orders dated 13 February 2018 and 22 April
2019 respectively.
Name: JW Library
Address: downloadable from Play Store and Apple Store
Date of block: unknown, but problems reported as early as 2 April 2021
Requesting agency: October District Court, St Petersburg
Background: app offers access to Jehovah's Witness books, pamphlets, and
Bible translations; banned as extremist on 31 March 2021.
Name: Wikipedia pages "Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia" and "Persecution of
Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia"
Address:
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/
and
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Date of block: 31 January 2023
Requesting agency: General Prosecutor's Office
Background: Roskomnadzor notified Wikipedia of the pages' violation of
Federal Law "On Information, Information Technologies, and Protection of
Information", stating that they comprised "Information containing the
rationale and (or) justification for the implementation of extremist
activities, including terrorist activities" [Roskomnadzor's own English
translation];
Name: Ru-nur.com
Address: https://ru-nur.com
Date of block: 11 August 2017
Requesting agency: Railway District Court, Novosibirsk
Background: Russian-language Turkish website offering texts of Said Nursi's
books, plus an online Koran and general information about Nursi and Islam;
block derived from 9 April 2014 Railway District Court ruling; also court
rulings by Koptevsky District Court, Moscow (2007); Central District Court,
Kaliningrad (2012); Lenin District Court, Kirov (2015), and Novo-Savinovsky
District Court, Kazan (2015), according to official registry.
Name: "Official website of translations of the books of 'Risale-i Nur' into
Russian by the publishing house 'Envar Neşriyat'"
Address: https://www.risale.ru-nur.com/
Date of block: 5 March 2019
Requesting agency: Railway District Court, Novosibirsk
Background: Russian-language Turkish website offering translations of Said
Nursi's writings; blocking order by Railway District Court, Novosibirsk, on
9 April 2014; block also based on 2010 ruling by Railway District Court,
Krasnoyarsk, and 2012 ruling by Central District Court, Kaliningrad;
Name: Way to Allah
Address: https://www.way-to-allah.com
Date of block: 29 July 2014
Requesting agency: unknown court
Background: multilingual German website offering Islamic texts in
translation; according to SOVA Center, court decision dated to 9 June 2014
– block appears to be because the site hosted Muhammad al-Tamimi's "Book
of Monotheism" (banned as extremist by Savelovsky District Court in Moscow
in 2004).
Name: Library of Islam from A to Ya
Address: https://bibliotekaislama.wordp
Date of block: after 26 May 2014
Requesting agency: Duldurga District Court, Zabaykalsky Region
Background: court decision blocking website page hosting al-Tamimi's "Book
of Monotheism" dated 26 May 2014; page and site still exist but remain
blocked in Russia with Error 451 message stating site was blocked (in its
entirety) by order of the Russian government and linking to further
information and the Justice Ministry's Federal List of Extremism Materials;
neither listed in registry but marked on Globalcheck as Code 451 (not
available for legal reasons).
Religious websites blocked for opposition to Ukraine war / falling into
another prohibited category
- Supporting LGBT+ people in religious communities
Name: Nuntiare et Recreare
Address: https://www.nuntiare.org
Date of block: 13 July 2023
Requesting agency: Federal Agency for Youth Affairs (Rosmolodyozh)
Russian multi-faith ministry for LGBT+ believers which held meetings in St
Petersburg, provides pastoral care, and collates LGBT-affirmative
theological materials on its website – the first religious site known to
have been blocked (https://www.forum18.org/archi
its connection to the LGBT community; first blocked on 11 July 2022 (order
dated 28 April 2022), then briefly unblocked between 17 April and 13 July
2023.
- Criticism of invasion of Ukraine / conduct of war
Name: Baznica.info
Address: https://baznica.info
Date of block: 10 April 2022
Requesting agency: General Prosecutor's Office
Background: Latvian-based, Russian-language religious news website, edited
by Lutheran pastor and commentator Pavel Levushkan; blocking decision dated
7 April 2022 (https://www.forum18.org/archi
Name: InVictory Megaportal of Christian Resources
Address: https://invictory.org
Date of block: 24 May 2022
Requesting agency: General Prosecutor's Office
Background: Russian-language non-denominational Christian news and
information website, critical of war in Ukraine; Roskomnadzor had
previously blocked three of its pages
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
Christians by a Ukrainian Baptist pastor and two articles about deaths and
detentions among Protestant civilians in Mariupol), which were unblocked
after the full site was rendered inaccessible; site appears to have mostly
moved to https://www.invictory.com
Name: -
Address: https://www.invictory.com/foru
Date of blocking: 7 September 2023
Requesting agency: Pervomaysky District Court, Omsk
Background: a discussion on InVictory's public forum of the "divinely
chosen" nature of the "Muscovite-Russian people", with one user in
particular mocking the idea, calling it "pseudo-Christian and
anti-Christian", and suggesting Russia is a Nazi state; court made blocking
decision on 21 July 2023; according to Globalcheck, entire site is
inaccessible in Russia.
Name: Public Orthodoxy
Address: https://publicorthodoxy.org
Date of block: 31 May 2022
Requesting agency: General Prosecutor's Office
Background: public-facing scholarly forum of Fordham University's Orthodox
Christian Studies Centre, New York, which has published numerous articles
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
Moscow Patriarchate's endorsement of the war in Ukraine and Russian
Orthodox Patriarch Kirill's favoured concept of "Russky Mir" ("Russian
World"); blocking decision dated 27 May 2022.
Name: -
Address: https://ieshua.org/yurij-sipko
Date of block: 7 July 2022
Requesting agency: General Prosecutor's Office
Background: a page on a Messianic Jewish internet portal containing an
anti-war poem (https://www.forum18.org/archi
former head of Russia's Baptist Union, Yury Sipko; page now appears to have
been removed from the site; according to Globalcheck, whole site appears to
be inaccessible in Russia; blocking decision dated 28 June 2022.
Name: Wikipedia page "The Russian Orthodox Church and Russia's invasion of
Ukraine"
Address:https://ru.wikipedia.o
Date of block: 2 March 2023
Requesting agency: General Prosecutor's Office
Background: According to notification Roskomnadzor sent to Wikipedia, site
blocked for "Informational materials containing unreliable socially
significant information about the special military operation conducted by
the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in the territory of Ukraine, its
form, methods of conducting combat operations, as well as information about
numerous casualties among the civilian population of Ukraine".
Name: Akhilla Zen page
Address: https://dzen.ru/ahilla
Date of block: 31 May 2024
Requesting agency: General Prosecutor's Office
Background: channel with 35,000 subscribers reproducing materials from main
website https://ahilla.ru (independent Russian Orthodox website highly
critical of Moscow Patriarchate and the war in Ukraine); now displays
message "Error 451. Publication blocked by demand of Roskomnadzor", whether
accessed from within or outside Russia; despite Roskomnadzor notification
of inclusion in Unified Registry, does not appear in registry search
results and marked by Globalcheck as 100 per cent accessible – may
actually have been blocked by Dzen itself.
(Akhilla announced on its website on 4 June 2024 that its Zen channel had
been blocked: "Earlier, Roskomnadzor demanded that we remove some
'extremist' materials, such as a song by the group 'Pornofilmy' or a repost
of some 'foreign agent'. Then they turned off monetisation, limited the
channel only to subscribers, and now they have completely closed it without
explaining why exactly.
"However, it is clear anyway: the Russian Ministry of Truth has been
diligently explaining to Russians for the third year now: 'war is peace,
slavery is freedom', and being an anti-war and anti-totalitarian resource
in our time of chauvinism and jingoism is a terrible crime. So if one day
you cannot access the 'Akhilla' website, you will know the reason").
(Note: media content platform Zen was created by Yandex in 2017 but sold to
VKontakte in September 2022).
Name: Christianity Today
Address: https://www.christianitytoday.
Date of block: 9 September 2023
Requesting agency: None listed
Background: US evangelical Christian magazine; blocking order dated 9
September 2023 (https://www.forum18.org/archi
had published Russian-language article on Russian troops destroying
Ukrainian churches, which was blocked on 7 September 2023.
Name: Christians Against War
Address: https://shaltnotkill.info
Date of block: 9 September 2023
Requesting agency: "State agency not given"
Background: anti-war project chronicling prosecutions of clergy and
believers opposing the war in Russia and Belarus, as well as the sacking
and defrocking of Moscow Patriarchate priests; blocking decision dated 7
September 2023 (https://www.forum18.org/archi
Name: IslamTsentr
Address: https://islamcenter.ru
Date of block: 7 September 2022
Requesting agency: General Prosecutor's Office
Background: directory of mosques, halal food outlets, and other services
for Muslims in Russia; the site's "About the project" page contains a
banner stating "No to war [Net voyne]" with a red cross drawn through the
pro-war Z symbol; decision on 31 August 2022;
(The banner links to a YouTube video of Ukrainian President Volodymyr
Zelensky's address to the peoples of the Caucasus and Siberia and "other
native peoples" of Russia, uploaded on 29 September 2022 by the Ukrainian
TSN news outlet – according to Google image search, the banner has been
present on the page from 31 March 2022 (unknown what if anything it linked
to at this point).)
Name: Katolik.life
Address: https://katolik.life
Date of block: unknown
Requesting agency: unknown
Background: site does not appear in Unified Registry but some users in
Russia have reported being unable to access it since June 2024 (other users
say they have no problems).
(Several users in Moscow have reported that the site fails to load, the
site administrator told Forum 18 on 25 September 2024. There is no specific
message about a block. Visitor statistics show that over the last few
months there have been no visits from Russia, but a large increase in
visits from Norway (now up to more than 70 per cent), suggesting use of
VPNs. It is possible that the problems may be local, Roskomsvoboda
commented to Forum 18 on 3 September.)
Ukrainian religious websites
Roskomnadzor has specifically blocked several Ukrainian religious websites,
but others appear to be inaccessible from within Russia simply because of
their .ua domain name (it is unclear whether this is a Russian or Ukrainian
restriction, or both).
Name: Religious Information Service of Ukraine
Address: https://risu.ua
Date of block: 9 March 2022
Requesting agency: General Prosecutor's Office
Background: religious news, culture, and analysis website, hosted by the
Institute of Religion and Society of the Ukrainian Catholic University in
Lviv; blocking order dated 24 February 2022
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
full-scale invasion.
Name: Orthodox Church of Ukraine
Address: https://pomisna.info
Date: 5 January 2024
Requesting agency: "State agency not given"
Background: website of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (successor to the
Kyiv Patriarchate, made autocephalous in 2019); blocking decision dated 3
January 2024 (https://www.forum18.org/archi
Roskomnadzor suggests (https://roskomsvoboda.org/ru/
block could be because of either "military censorship" or a ban on
"information on the collection of donations by religious organisations if
they have not received the right to conduct such collections".
Name: Islam in Ukraine
Address: https://islam.in.ua/
Date of block: 20 January 2023
Requesting agency: none listed
Background: Ukrainian Islamic news and information portal, associated with
Religious Administration of Muslims of Ukraine (Dukhovne upravlinnya
musulman Ukrainy); blocking decision dated 7 January 2023
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
Name: Ukrainian Lutheran Church
Address: https://ukrlc.org
Date of block: unknown
Requesting agency: unknown
Background: not listed in Unified Registry; marked as 0 per cent
accessible, "context deadline exceeded" on Globalcheck.
Name: Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organisations
Address: https://vrciro.org.ua/
Date of block: 27 January 2023
Requesting agency: none listed
Background: Ukrainian public association for interfaith cooperation,
comprising representatives of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish organisations;
blocking decision dated 23 January 2023
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
Name: Religion in Ukraine
Address: https://www.religion.in.ua
Date of block: 31 August 2024
Requesting agency: none listed
Background: independent Ukrainian religious news website; blocking decision
dated 9 August 2024.
(Religion in Ukraine stated on 17 September 2024
(https://www.religion.in.ua/ma
that Roskomnadzor had notified its hosting provider that it had violated
the Law on Information:
"It follows from the message that the General Prosecutor's Office of the
Russian Federation did not like our work very much, [and has] included our
domain in the list of 'Russophobes' who publish 'informational materials
aimed at destabilisation of the socio-political situation in the Russian
Federation'.
"We were 'given a chance to rehabilitate ourselves' in the eyes of 'Russian
justice' by removing the destabilising materials from the site, but since
we were not even told what specifically worried them so deeply, we will
assume by default that EVERYTHING did. All our analytical materials, our
news presentation, after all, our values are the promotion of the idea of
church reconciliation and unity and the destruction of the influence of the
Moscow Patriarchate on Ukrainian Orthodoxy, not through revenge, hatred and
religious war. This is what, in the opinion of Roskomnadzor and the General
Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation, destabilises the
socio-political situation in the Russian Federation and 'creates a threat
of a mass violation of public order and/or public safety or a threat of
creating obstacles to the functioning or stopping the functioning of life
support facilities'.
"We consider the verdict of the General Prosecutor's Office of the Russian
Federation a compliment and recognition that we are working effectively.
"How does it threaten us and our readers? For everyone who does not live in
Russia - nothing. We continue to work in the same spirit. Unfortunately,
Russian readers who are interested in us will be able to read us at best
through a VPN. But in order to be able to follow our updates from Russia
(and they read us there), 'Religion in Ukraine' plans to start a Telegram
channel.
"We thank our admirers and even enemies who have created incredible
advertising for the portal".)
Social media accounts of individuals who have opposed the war on religious
grounds
Name: Anna Sergeyevna Chagina
Address: https://vk.com/anna_chagington
Date of block: 3 September 2022
Requesting agency: General Prosecutor's Office
Background: Chagina was convicted under Criminal Code Article 280.3, Part 1
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
"discreditation" of the Russian Armed Forces) and fined 150,000 Roubles on
7 August 2023 for anti-war posts on VKontakte and displaying a placard
reading "Blessed are the peacemakers [Matthew 5:9]" at an anti-war protest
in Tomsk in March 2022.
Name: Father Ioann Kurmoyarov / Orthodox Virtual Parish
Address: https://dzen.ru/id/5f9bebec369
Date of block: 9 March 2022
Requesting agency: General Prosecutor's Office
Background: now-defunct Yandex Zen channel hosting videos also posted on
YouTube; blocking decision dated 24 February 2022; Fr Ioann (formerly of
the Moscow Patriarchate, now a member of a branch of the Russian Orthodox
Church Outside Russia) posted videos critical of the Russian government and
the Moscow Patriarchate before Russia's invasion of Ukraine, then began to
condemn the war and the actions of Russian troops; he was prosecuted under
Criminal Code Article 207.3 (dissemination of "false information" about the
Armed Forces) and sentenced to three years' imprisonment
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
released on 1 August 2024
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
Name: Lena Sokolova
Address: https://vk.com/id694689962
Date of block: after 1 September and before 3 December 2022
Requesting agency: General Prosecutor's Office
Background: blocking decision dated 1 September 2022; page does not appear
in Unified Registry and remains accessible within Russia, but with content
blocked by VKontakte from the view of Russian users.
(Lena Sokolova is a Russian Christian who opposes the invasion of Ukraine.
She set up the Telegram channel "Those scattered by persecution"
(https://t.me/christians_toget
2022 to maintain communication between Christians in Russia and Ukraine,
and has been consistently critical of the war both there and on her
VKontakte page, where she continues to post, despite the block:
"You don't need to have any special empathy or wisdom to be against war
while living in Russia. History has already shown that among the active
opponents of war there have been poorly educated grandmothers who barely
remember yesterday, as well as children and teenagers, and housewives. You
just need to be fair, or righteous according to the Synodal [Bible].
Impartial. Judge and act righteously, fairly. And not partially, shielding
'your own'. God requires this of us even in the Old Testament.
"Everything is simple and accessible even to a child. Do unto others as you
would have them do unto you. This is a principle for the whole world, the
whole world knows it. And unbelievers often, to the shame of believers, are
more successful in it" (12 July 2024).
Sokolova does not appear to have faced administrative or criminal
prosecution.
On 3 August 2024, she responded to a Telegram subscriber who commented that
they had stopped using VKontakte: "On the contrary, I began to write there
actively with the beginning of the war. We must be the light, and not hide
in a Christian bunker".)
Name: Archbishop Viktor Pivovarov
Address: https://www.youtube.com/@eshat
Date of block: 25 June 2024 – access restored on 26 June 2024
Requesting agency: unknown
Background: channel with videos of sermons taken down with no notification
from either Roskomnadzor or YouTube – reinstated the following day after
an appeal to Google, but the company offered no explanation; Archbishop
Viktor, who has openly and vehemently condemned the Russian invasion of
Ukraine in his sermons and writings, was fined 150,000 Roubles
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
Article 280.3 (repeat "discreditation" of the Armed Forces) in April 2024
and his church in Krasnodar Region, which is not affiliated with the Moscow
Patriarchate, has been threatened with demolition
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
https://eshatologia.org appears never to have been blocked.
(On 20 May 2024, independent Russian news outlet Agentstvo noted that
YouTube had blocked three videos
(https://www.agents.media/yout
about avoiding military mobilisation on the "Dozor v Volgograde" and
"Shkola prizyvnika" channels, and had informed OVD-Info of a possible block
on its whole channel. Agentstvo commented that this may indicate a change
in YouTube's approach to requests from the Russian authorities.
YouTube restored direct links to the videos the day after Agentstvo's
article, Radio Liberty reported on 22 May 2024
(https://www.svoboda.org/a/ost
but the videos still did not appear in searches and probably not in
recommendations – a "shadow ban", according to Yevgeny Kochegin of "Dozor
v Volgograde".
In 2023, Google fulfilled more than 50 per cent of Roskomnadzor requests,
mostly about YouTube; more than 30,000 requests were based on political
reasons – Google does not say in its report how many requests in this
category it upheld (other requests were regarding copyright infringement,
fraud, suicide, and illegal drugs).)
Media / NGO websites
Blocked for opposition to war / criticism of Russian government /
violations of "foreign agent" law – covered religious freedom violations
among other topics;
Name: OVD-Info
Monitors detentions and prosecutions of people who criticise the Russian
government or who are targeted for their beliefs, including Jehovah's
Witnesses, Muslim Nursi readers, and individuals who have opposed Russia's
war in Ukraine on religious grounds; provides legal advice and support;
Address: https://www.ovdinfo.org
Date of block: 25 December 2021
Requesting agency: Lukhovitsky District Court, Moscow;
Background: formerly OVD-Info's main website; blocking decision dated 20
December 2021
(https://ovd.info/express-news
and apparently based on the fact that "OVD-Info's activities were allegedly
aimed at promoting terrorism and extremism in Russia"; unblocked on 7 April
2023 after ruling overturned for procedural reasons.
Address: https://ovd.info
Date of block: 14 February 2024
Requesting agency: Justice Ministry
Background: OVD-Info's new main website; blocking decision dated 7 February
2024
(https://ovd.info/express-news
and based on alleged violations of the "foreign agent" law.
Addresses: https://ovd.legal and https://ovd.news
Date of block: 7 June 2023
Requesting agency: Justice Ministry
Background: OVD-Info's legal advice platform and news feed; both sites
blocked by same decision, dated 2 June 2023
(https://ovd.info/express-news
reasons for block unclear. Now at https://ovdinfo.legal and
https://ovd.info/express-news
Address: https://vk.com/ovdinfo
Date of block: after 1 July and before 11 August 2022
Requesting agency: General Prosecutor's Office
Background: OVD-Info's group on VKontakte social network; blocking decision
dated 1 July 2022
(https://ovd.info/express-news
and based on alleged presence of "false socially significant information
about the special military operation" (ie. the war in Ukraine), including
about Russian attacks on Ukrainian civilians and civilian infrastructure,
and Russian military casualties.
Name: Conscript School (Shkola prizyvnika)
Address: https://netprizyvu.ru
Date of block: 4 April 2024
Requesting agency: none listed
Background: organisation advises young men subject to conscription into the
Russian armed forces, including on how to apply for alternative civilian
service on the basis of religious or philosophical beliefs; blocking
decision dated 2 April 2024.
Name: Memorial Human Rights Centre
Address: https://memohrc.org
Date of block: 28 May 2022
Requesting agency: General Prosecutor's Office
Background: reports on human rights abuses in Russia and Memorial's
involvement in court cases, including at the European Court of Human
Rights, plus list of political prisoners, including Jehovah's Witnesses and
Muslim Nursi readers; blocking order dated 28 May 2022.
Name: Memorial Human Rights Centre
Address: https://memorialcenter.org
Date of block: 19 March 2024
Requesting agency: none listed
Background: new site; blocking decision dated 9 March 2024.
Name: Memorial Support for Political Prisoners
Address: https://memopzk.org
Date of block: 30 April 2024
Requesting agency: none listed
Background: new site for list of political prisoners; blocking decision
dated 20 April 2024; also blocked in " www." form (same IP address) on 15
August 2024.
Name: International Memorial Association
Address: https://memo.site
Date of block: 30 September 2024
Requesting agency: "State agency not given"
Background: English- and Russian-language information about political
repressions, both current and historical, advice on supporting political
prisoners, and interviews with their relatives, including many reports on
trials of Ukrainian POWs; blocking decision dated 26 September 2024.
Name: Urals Memorial
Address: https://ekmemorial.org
Date of block: 13 November 2023
Requesting agency: Justice Ministry
Background: site run by members of unregistered volunteer group which
documents the history of Soviet-era political repressions in Urals and runs
expeditions to the sites of Gulag camps – news pages also report on
present-day political prisoners, including in Russian-occupied Ukraine;
reason appears to be "foreign agent" law; blocking decision dated 8
November 2023
(https://ekmemorial.org/novost
(END)
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Forum 18's compilation of Organisation for Security and Co-operation in
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