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Russian social network VK’s office in Kiev closed

Among the blacklisted entities are Russian social networking sites Vkontakte (VK) and Odnoklassniki (Classmates), and also e-mail services Mail.ru and Yandex search engine

KIEV, June 16. /TASS/. Kiev-based office of the Russian social networking site VK (VKontakte) has shut down in the wake of Ukraine’s sanctions, the spokesman of the VK Ukrainian branch said on Friday.

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"The legal entity is blacklisted in Ukraine so the office has closed," Ukrinform news agency quoted Vlad Legotkin as saying.

On May 16, Ukraine expanded the list of Russian nationals and entities subject to Ukrainian sanctions and extended earlier sanctions. The blacklist includes 1,228 individuals and 468 legal entities. Among the blacklisted entities are Russian social networking sites Vkontakte (VK) and Odnoklassniki (Classmates), and also e-mail services Mail.ru and Yandex search engine. Ukrainian Internet providers are ordered to block access to these websites in the country for the following three years.

VK representatives in Ukraine emphasized their indifference to politics and vowed to protect interests of consumers and partners. The VK press service said that the number of monthly visits to the site stood at 16 million, which had propelled it to be the most popular social network in Ukraine.

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