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Court registers first claim against Russian regulator because of Telegram blocking

The claim was filed by OOO Investory

MOSCOW, April 29. /TASS/. The Moscow Arbitration Court registered the claim filed by OOO Investory against the Russian communications regulator Roskomnadzor and the Finance Ministry in the amount of 5 mln rubles ($80.7 mln), according to data of the arbitration cases register.

Chief Executive of the company Alexander Vikharev told TASS earlier that he estimated damages of his company, whose website fell under the large-scale blocking initiated by Roskomnadzor against the Telegram messenger.

The claim has not yet been taken for consideration.

Telegram blocking action "inflicted huge damages in connection with impossibility for users to register on the platform <…> and get access to investment targets," the statement of claim available with TASS says. Furthermore, restrictions disrupted traffic capacity of the company, leading to its losses of 5 mln rubles ($80.7 mln).

On April 13, Moscow’s Tagansky Court satisfied the claim of Russia’s Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor) to block access to the Telegram instant messaging service in Russia due to its failure to provide the keys for decrypting users’ messages to the Federal Security Service (FSB). On April 16, communication providers embarked on carrying out the blocking process.