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Kiev court refuses to declare ban on Russian social networks unlawful

The banned Russian internet companies have a significantly large audience in Ukraine, a total of 16,000,000 people use Vkontakte, while the number of Odnoklassniki users totals around 9,500,000

KIEV, June 14. /TASS/. Ukraine’s Supreme Administrative Court has rejected a lawsuit filed by student Nikita Yevstifeyev demanding that the presidential decree imposing a ban on the Russian social networks be declared unlawful, the court’s press service said on Wednesday.

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Kiev bans Russian social networks to silence alternative opinions and news — diplomat

"The court has rejected the lawsuit filed by Nikita Yevstifeyev, a student of the Kiyevo-Mogilyankaya Academy, demanding that the presidential decree on banning the Russian VKontakte and Odnoklassniki social networks be declared unlawful and abolished," the court said. According to the press service, the full text of the court ruling will be made public in five days, after that it will be possible to file appeals.

The Kiev authorities’ decision to impose sanctions on the Russian social networks and other internet resources, as well as on the 1C accounting software, lead to popular discontent. In particular, more than 25,000 Ukrainians signed a petition calling on the country’s President Pyotr Poroshenko to unblock the Russian VKontakte social network. Now the president will have to consider the petition.

The banned Russian internet companies have a significantly large audience in Ukraine. Yandex claims to have as many as 11,000,000 Ukrainian users, while about 25,000,000 Ukrainian citizens use the Mail.ru platforms for communication. A total of 16,000,000 people in Ukraine use Vkontakte, while the number of Odnoklassniki users totals around 9,500,000.

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