Ukraine is entangled in Russian social networks
Blocking Russian Internet-services “Vkontakte”, “Classmates”, Mail.ru and “Yandex” entered on the personal initiative of the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, has caused discontent in the country and abroad.
On Friday morning the building of the presidential administration of Ukraine was cordoned off reinforced police squads and national guard, and neighboring yards were on duty patrols. The reason for such measures become widespread, the calls for Internet users to meet in this place at 16:00 and speak out against blocking in a number of Russian Internet services: social networks “Vkontakte” and “Classmates”, as well as Mail.ru and “Yandex”.
“We need to go out and show the authorities that behind every account is a real person who wants his opinion considered” were the words placed on the pages of opponents of the restrictions. Spread the calls to rally primarily through Facebook is an American social network that locks have not been.
Perhaps because of the large number of law enforcement officials the action was actually broken — contrary to expectations, the building of the presidential administration came only fifty people. The correspondent of “Kommersant” they introduced themselves as students of Kiev universities. Young people were holding posters with inscriptions in Ukrainian and Russian languages: “No “VK” (Vkontakte.— “B”) our lives bitter”, “You kill our subculture” and others. In protest of the protesters taped their mouths with adhesive tape. Their associates explained “Kommersant” that require unlock “Vkontakte”: “In this our life.”
In the Service of national defense and security of Ukraine at the same time assure that no responsibility for the use of blocked websites through proxies and VPN services to users is not threatened.
At the same time, a ban on the use of the services has actually been supplemented with a new clause: Ukrainian officials called for “without delay” to change mailboxes with Russian domains in Ukrainian.
Such a request was made by the National Agency for prevention of corruption, where civil servants serve the Declaration on the income. Now in their accounts in the Unified state register of declarations of officials recommended to specify the mail on the servers ukr.net, i.ua, email.ua and gmail.com (the mail server of Google) and avoid using mail.ru, yandex.ru and bk.ru.
Meanwhile, international reaction to the new Ukrainian law remains controversial. After two days of silence (the President of the country Petro Poroshenko announced the introduction of restrictions on 16 may, and the next day the ban came into force) lock has finally commented on in the European Union. After studying the initiative of the Ukrainian authorities, Brussels has expressed utmost restraint, but nonetheless critical.
“We recognize that protecting national security is the prerogative of the Ukrainian government, — said the publication “European Pravda” head of the press and information Department of the EU delegation in Kiev Jurgis, Vilcinskas.— Nevertheless, we expect the authorities to ensure that measures adopted for security reasons, will not have a negative impact on the fundamental human right to Express their opinion.” In addition, Mr. Vilcinskas said that the EU is still waiting for explanations about whether the measures introduced temporary.
Recall that the first reaction of international authorities on the Ukrainian sanctions against Moscow came on may 17. Then blocking Russian sites supported NATO, calling it “a safety issue, not freedom of speech”, and in the Council of Europe, by contrast, was criticized for a violation of the “principle of proportionality”.
Kirill Krivosheev, Yanina Sokolovskaya, Kyiv