All news

Ukrianian court puts on hold lawsuit against ban on Russian social networks

According to the court, the plaintiff failed to justify and substantiate his claims and specify what rights were violated

KIEV, May 28. /TASS/. The High Administrative Court of Ukraine ruled to put on hold a lawsuit by human rights activists seeking to contest the Ukrainian president’s decree banning Russian social networking sites.

The Chuguyev human rights group from the Kharkov Region’s city of Chuguyev sought to contest the presidential decree in court, saying that the president’s decree was in breach of human rights.

"The legal claim should be suspended. The deadline for fixing irregularities in the legal claim is set for June 23, 2017," reads a court statement, posted by activist Roman Likhachev on his Facebook page.

According to the document, the plaintiff failed to justify and substantiate his claims and specify what rights were violated.

Last week, Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko signed an expanded blacklist consisting of 1,228 Russian individuals and 468 companies. Sanctions have been imposed on many Russian IT companies, including 1C, ABBYY and their Ukrainian subsidiaries. In addition, Russia’s VKontakte and Odnoklassniki social networks, Mail.ru and Yandex internet companies have also been outlawed.

The move was condemned by numerous human rights bodies, including Human Rights Watch. Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjorn Jagland said the ban violates the basic principles of the freedom of speech.