Roskomnadzor has blocked the websites of Open Media, MBKh Media and Pravozashchita Otkrytki in Russia. Main

On the evening of August 4, Roskomnadzor blocked the websites of the publications Open Media and MBKh Media, which are associated with Mikhail Khodorkovsky. In both cases, they were added to the register of prohibited information by decision of the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation. The agency cited Article 15.3 of the Law on Information, Information Technologies, and the Protection of Information: this article allows blocking websites that contain information calling for mass riots, extremist activities, or participation in illegal mass events.

Also in Russia, the website of “Pravozashchita Otkrytki” — Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s human rights project — was blocked. The notice of blocking stated that access to the website was restricted on the basis of Article 15.3 of the Law “On Information”. In addition, according to data from the Roskomsvoboda project, the website of the “Profession — Journalist” award, established by Khodorkovsky in 2016, was blocked.

Roskomnadzor reported that it had restricted “access to the information resources of the Open Russia Civic Movement and Open Russia,” two organizations linked to Khodorkovsky that the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office included in the list of “undesirable” in 2017, RBK reports , citing Roskomnadzor. After the Russian authorities declared these organizations “undesirable,” the local organization Open Russia, which had never been called “undesirable,” began having problems. On May 27, Open Russia ceased operations to protect its supporters from criminal prosecution.

Open Media, MBKh Media and Pravozashchita Otkrytki do not know why they were blocked. Two publications and a human rights project reported that neither Roskomnadzor nor the Prosecutor General's Office notified them of the blocking. Representatives of Open Media reported that on the evening of August 4, a couple of hours before the blocking, they received four letters from Roskomnadzor demanding that they remove illegal information. The letters did not specify what information they were talking about. MBKh Media noted that they did not receive any notifications.

Yulia Yarosh, editor-in-chief of Open Media, noted in a conversation with Meduza that Roskomnadzor usually indicates in its warnings the specific address of the material that is the subject of complaints, as well as the period of time within which it must be removed. “This has not happened now,” Yarosh said.

We don't understand the reason for the blocking. And we don't know what to do about it yet. We will contact RKN. But most likely, it is something very serious. Apparently, it is not about us deleting some news and being unblocked.

Veronika Kutsyllo, editor-in-chief of the MBKh Media website, told Meduza that two weeks ago the editorial staff received the latest official warning from RKN over a story published in December 2020. “It concerned suicide, and the warning was related to the description of the method of suicide. We fixed everything,” Kutsyllo said.

Kutsyllo noted that in 2018, Roskomnadzor blocked the mbk.media website, but then it was unblocked. “As the editor-in-chief, I am currently unaware of any formal reasons for blocking the mbk-news.appspot.com website in the Russian Federation. We have not received any demands or warnings. It is obvious that they are simply clearing out the entire field of independent media,” Kutsyllo said.

The Otkrytki Human Rights Defense told Meduza that “we have not received any notifications.” “There were not even any formal letters. Therefore, now we can only guess what the blocking is connected with,” the organization said. After the blocking of the site, Otkrytki Human Rights Defense changed the name of its Telegram channel to “Empty” and also deleted all messages, leaving only one.

In July, the Ministry of Justice declared the activities of four non-governmental organizations associated with Mikhail Khodorkovsky “undesirable” in Russia. These are the British Khodorkovsky Foundation, its subsidiary, the British Oxford Russia Fund, as well as the British Future of Russia Foundation and the French European Choice. In July, Roskomnadzor also blocked the website of the Dossier Center, also associated with Khodorkovsky, in Russia.

In July, the Russian Ministry of Justice included three journalists from Open Media in the list of "foreign agent media outlets." The list included the publication's editor-in-chief Yulia Yarosh , her deputy Maxim Glikin , and correspondent Ilya Rozhdestvensky .

Alexander Baklanov, Tatyana Lysova and Pavel Merzlikin