VKontakte blocks several of Navalny’s former campaign office leaders

Source: Net Freedoms Project

The Russian social network VKontakte has blocked at least five pages belonging to individuals who formerly led regional campaign offices for opposition politician Alexey Navalny, reports the Net Freedoms Project.

VKontakte blocked the accounts of the following former Team Navalny staffers:

  • Andrey Prokudin, ex-head of the Tver campaign office
  • Diana Rudakova, ex-head of the Tambov campaign office
  • Ksenia Seredkina, ex-head of the Rostov campaign office
  • Alexey Vorsin, ex-head of the Khabarovsk campaign office (who is currently under house arrest) 

The social network also hid the page of Elvira Dmitrieva, the former head of Navalny’s Kazan campaign office, who passed away two years ago.

According to Andrey Prokudin, Vkontakte is only hiding his page from users with Russian IP addresses, and his page can still be viewed via a VPN or a foreign IP address. Prokudin added that Vkontakte didn’t warn him about his account being blocked. He also underscored that he “scrubbed” his page after the Russian authorities outlawed Navalny’s nonprofits and political network as “extremist” organizations.

Diana Rudakova said that her page was blocked on the basis of an order handed down by the Attorney General’s Office on July 23. The Net Freedoms Project notes that this particular document (No.31.27.2021/Id8550-21) served as the basis for Russia’s federal censor (Roskomnadzor) adding other Navalny-linked web pages — such as the “Navalny Live” YouTube channel — to its registry of prohibited sites. That said, the VKontakte pages of the former Navalny staffers are not included in Roskomnadzor’s registry.

VKontakte’s press service claimed that the pages were blocked due to calls for participation in unsanctioned protest ralling.

“VKontakte was forced to restrict access to these pages on the territory of the Russian Federation at the request of the Attorney General’s Office. Earlier, we already received two fines in the amount of 1.5 million rubles [about $20,500] each for failing to remove calls to participate in rallies. Repeated violations may result in a fine in the amount of one tenth of [our] annual earnings.”

The Moscow City Court outlawed Alexey Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (the FBK), Citizens’ Rights Protection Foundation, and national network of campaign offices as “extremist organizations” in July.

In the weeks leading up to the State Duma elections, the Russian authorities began blocking Navalny’s “Smart Vote” initiative, citing its linked to the outlawed FBK. Yandex and Google were also from displaying search results for the phrase umnoe golosovanie (“smart vote” or “smart voting”). Under pressure from the Russian authorities, Apple and Google also removed Navalny’s mobile app — which contains a “Smart Vote” function — from their app stores. The messenger service Telegram also blocked “Smart Vote” bots.

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