Russia added 65 organizations to the list in 2024, include the Clooney Foundation for Justice (CFJ), founded by George and Amal Clooney, and the independent Russian media outlet the Moscow Times.
The possible blocking of calls is being justified by authorities as a crackdown on anti-fraud calls.
WhatsApp is the only Meta service that has not yet been blocked in Russia.
Russia's communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, announced on Dec. 13 that it had blocked access to the Viber messaging app.
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law banning the adoption of Russian children by citizens of countries where gender transitioning is legal, the Russian government’s legal information website published on Nov. 23.
Russian authorities are seeking a six-year prison sentence for Dr. Nadezhda Buyanova, a pediatrician originally from Lviv, Ukraine, accused of criticizing Russia’s actions in Ukraine during a private appointment.
Moscow's Basmanny district court sentenced Ukrainian film producer Alexander Rodnyansky, on Oct. 21, to 8 and a half years in absentia for "spreading fake information" about the Russian Army.
Steam, which has an online catalog of more than 100,000 games and is used by around 130 million users around the world, including close to 10 million in Russia, agreed to comply with legislation, the federal censorship agency Roskomnadzor told Interfax.
Russia's Investigative Committee reportedly alleged that Kirill Martynov, chief editor of Novaya Gazeta Europe, was "conducting activities of an undesirable organization."
Peskov's comments came on the same day that the Russian federal telecommunications regulator, Roskomnadzor, deleted a published draft of its plans to deanonymize Russian Telegram channels.
The charges relate to stories that the Listok media outlet published about the Bucha massacre, where Russian soldiers murdered hundreds of Ukrainian civilians, as well as other Russian war crimes committed in Ukraine.
The Prosecutor General's Office claimed that the Clooney Foundation for Justice (CFJ) "carries out work aimed at discrediting Russia on a Hollywood scale."
Earlier, Signal users in Russia complained about problems with the messaging app. It no longer opens without a VPN or other bypass tools enabled, the Russian English-language newspaper Moscow Times reported.
The law on "undesirable" organizations has existed since 2015 and has been used to target perceived opponents of Russian President Vladimir Putin's regime, including NGOs, independent media outlets, human rights groups, and others.
Widespread YouTube outages have already been reported across Russia starting earlier in August.
The news comes days after a Russian lawmaker warned that the government would deliberately slow down YouTube loading speeds in response to Google's refusal to comply with Russian authorities' demands.
Russia will deliberately slow YouTube loading speeds by up to 70% by the end of next week, in response to Google's refusal to comply with the demands of the Russian authorities, Russian lawmaker Alexander Khinshtein said on July 25.
The news comes shortly after Rostelecom, the country's leading telecommunications provider, said there are "technical problems with Google's equipment" which may "affect the download speed and quality of YouTube videos."
A seven-judge panel ruled unanimously that the law violates the convention's articles regarding freedom of assembly and association and freedom of expression.
Organizations belonging to the list are banned from operating in Russia, and it is illegal for individuals or other media outlets to share their content.
The Syktyvkar city court in Russia issued arrests in absentia to world chess champion and Free Russia Forum co-founder Garry Kasparov, along with several other activists, on charges of creating a "terrorist community," financing "terrorist activities," and publicly calling for terrorism.
Russia's book union has created an advisory body to check books' compliance with national legislation, namely recent laws targeting the LGBT community in Russia, the Russian state-controlled media outlet Vedomosti reported on April 23.
The Kremlin may either allocate extra barricades and border security forces to deflect criticism, or choose to keep the majority of military equipment and personnel in Ukraine to conserve resources.
Yaroslav Shirshikov was arrested in April 2023 on charges of "justifying terrorism" after he called pro-war blogger Vladlen Tatarsky a "scumbag" on Telegram and said that he did not feel "a tinge of sadness" over his death.
Welcome to Investigative Stories from Ukraine, the Kyiv Independent's newsletter that walks you through the most prominent investigations of the past week. If you are fond of in-depth journalism that exposes war crimes, corruption and abuse of power across state organizations in Ukraine and beyond, subscribe to our investigative newsletter.
Welcome to Investigative Stories from Ukraine, the Kyiv Independent's newsletter that walks you through the most prominent Ukrainian and Ukraine-focused investigations of the past week. If you are fond of in-depth journalism that exposes war crimes, corruption and abuse of power across state organizations in Ukraine and beyond, subscribe to
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