Roskomnadzor threatens to block sites that don’t delete info from Navalny film by Wed night

File Image of Laptop Computer, Tables and Mobile Device, adapted from image at energy.gov

MOSCOW. Feb 14 (Interfax) – Roskomnadzor has given websites that have yet to delete the information contained in the film made by Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation until Wednesday evening to do so, saying they will be blocked if they do not comply.

“The monitoring of the sites that have failed to delete the prohibited information and remain in the Unified Register (13 links) is continuing. These sites have until late Wednesday, February 14, to delete the information specified in the court ruling,” Roskomandzor’s press service told Interfax.

Instagram earlier reported Roskomnadzor’s demand to delete this information. A similar letter requesting the deletion of the illegal information posted on Navalny’s channel was received by the administration of Youtube. The opposition activist’s website, on which the film is available for viewing, may be blocked as well.

Almost 30 sites, including those of all mass media outlets, have deleted the information, Roskomandzor said.

“Most Internet sites specified in the decision of the Ust-Labinsky District Court of the Krasnodar Territory have now deleted the illegal information, including all mass media outlets. For this reason, 29 links specified in the court ruling have been removed from the Unified Register of Prohibited Information,” the press service said.

On February 8, Navalny published material stating that Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Prikhodko had vacationed on Oleg Deripaska’s yacht, Elden. Using photos and videos posted on Instagram by a young woman calling herself Nastya Rybka, he concluded that Deripaska and the deputy prime minister were discussing business and international issues on the yacht.

A spokesman for Deripaska said the businessman intends to file a lawsuit over Navalny’s accusations, which he says are false. Prikhodko, deputy prime minister and head of the administration of the government, called the material a provocation, but said it would be “too great an honor” to file a lawsuit against the opposition activist. “In actual fact, one should respond to this like a man, but we will stay within the legal field,” Prikhodko said in a statement quoted by RBC.

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