Russia blocked Ukrainian websites in Belarus

During this week, Belarussian Internet users were reporting issues with access to Ukrainian websites (in particular, censor.net.ua, and glavnoe.ua), as well as to the Belarussian oppositional website «Khartia’97». Browsers would just show a message that these websites were blocked «according to the decision of the court or due to other reasons as set by the legislation of the Russian Federation.»  The fact that Roskomnadzor blocked Ukrainian websites led to protests in Belarus. The movement «Za Svabodu» demanded explanation from Belarussian governmental agencies. This was reported by Deutsche Welle.

The vice head of the movement «Za Svabodu» in Belarus Yuri Gubarevych expressed his indignation at Roskomnadzor for blocking civil and political websites as it added to the censorship practiced by the Belarussian governmental agencies and showed lack of respect to Belarus’ informational sovereignty.  

The expert of the Center of Legal Transformation in Belarus Andriy Sushko explained that the Belarussian legislation does not provide for an opportunity for third countries to block access to websites, be they Belarussian or not.