Ukrainian President signs decree banning access to Russian websites, including social media

Ukrainian President, Petro Poroshenko, has signed a decree banning access to the Russian VK and Odnoklassniki social media sites, as well as some other Russian websites. The decree is available on the President’s official website.

Under the document, the aforesaid restrictions are imposed as part of the sanctions against the Mail.Ru Group, which runs the social media sites. Providers should also block access to the Mail.ru website itself.

Moreover, access to all Yandex services, except for the search engine’s main page, will be blocked for a period of three years. The websites of Kasperski Lab and Dr.Web anti-virus providers will also be blocked.

Sanctions will also be imposed against RBK, TV Center, VGTRK, Zvezda and NTV Plus TV channels.

In mid-March this year, Petro Poroshenko imposed sanctions against five Ukraine-based banks with Russian state capital.

On 15 March, the National Bank of Ukraine proposed to ban subsidiaries of the Russian state banks (Sberbank, VTB) from siphoning off funds abroad. In September last year, Ukraine restricted the activity of the Russian payment service providers in the country’s territory.