Russian opposition leader's website blocked before election

World
Europe

Russia's media watchdog on Thursday blocked the website of opposition leader Alexei Navalny after he posted a video alleging a deputy prime minister enjoyed lavish hospitality from a billionaire tycoon.

State body Roskomnadzor confirmed the website had been added to a list of banned pages that service providers are required to block, in comments to Russian news agencies.

Roskomnadzor also threatened to block any site distributing the video, including YouTube and Instagram, but both remain accessible in Russia.

Navalny, who has been barred from running against President Vladimir Putin in next month's election, says the video appears to show the Russian leader's former top foreign policy adviser Sergei Prikhodko vacationing on the yacht of 50-year-old Oleg Deripaska, an aluminum magnate.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny leaves the European Court of Human Rights after a hearing regarding his case against Russia at the court in Strasbourg, France, January 24, 2018. /Reuters Photo

Navalny questioned the ethics of the meeting in which he said the two men discussed US-Russia relations, and he posted what purported to be photographs of the encounter taken from the social media account of a young woman who was also on the boat.

Both Deripaska and Prikhodko, who rarely makes comments to the media, denied the allegations.

Navalny said that he had no intention of voluntarily taking down the material.

The YouTube video, which accompanies his investigation, has been watched over five million times.

Roskomnadzor said Instagram had complied with a request to take down related material and that it was waiting for Google to delete Navalny’s YouTube video.

Source(s): AFP ,Reuters