In a blatant violation of freedom of speech, Russia today blocked access to four websites run by political opponents and critics of President Vladimir Putin on his orders. Alexei Navalny’s blog seemed the prime target of these orders and the collateral damage took down two news sites and a Blog run by Garry Kasparov, Chess Grandmaster.
The blogs/websites that are banned from viewing in Russia are
2. Russian news site Ej.ru
3. Russian news site grani.ru
Anna Veduta, a spokeswoman for Alexei Navalny, said in a tweet that the block was a “political decision taken as part of the cleansing of the media space”
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— Anna Veduta (@Anna_Veduta) March 13, 2014
The official version coming out of Kremlin is that these websites were blocked as per the orders of Russia’s prosecutor general’s office. In a statement, it said the websites were being blocked because of their role in the illegal protests against the Russian government. Privacy activists based in Russia said the blocks were just the latest in a series of moves by Russia’s government to stifle dissent.
Incidentally two other blogs being operated by Alexei Navalny have still not been officially blocked or named in the list. One is dedicated to the state corruption in organising the Winter Olympics 2014 at Sochi and can be read here. The other is the personal English language blog of Mr.Navalny (the Russian edition has been blocked). Mr.Navalny is currently under house arrest since past two months Under the terms of his house arrest, he is not to use the internet. Alexander Ryklin, editor of the Ej.ru website, said the imposition of the block was “monstrous” and a “direct violation of all the principles of freedom of speech”.
The order of the Russian Prosecutor General’s office is given here,
