Moscow court fines blogger 30,000 rubles for joke that presented Russia’s 2020 Telegram unblocking announcement (now effectively rolled back) as current news
A magistrate’s court in Moscow’s Tagansky district fined blogger Yekaterina Kuznetsova 30,000 rubles for an administrative offense involving abuse of media freedom under Part 9 of Article 13.15 of Russia’s Code of Administrative Offenses, the news outlets Ostorozhno, Novosti and Mediazona reported.
The citation stemmed from a June 2026 post on Kuznetsova’s Telegram channel, Ne marginalny kontent, which has 15,000 subscribers. She shared a news item about Telegram being unblocked, writing, “Friends, looks like I’ve got some good news,” followed by a statement from Russia’s communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, about fully unblocking the messaging app in the summer of 2020.
Kuznetsova soon received a notice from Roskomnadzor demanding that she delete the post for spreading false information on a matter of public importance.
Roskomnadzor concluded that Kuznetsova “presents old, accurate information as fresh, current news.” The regulator said the post could mislead readers and lead to widespread public disorder.
Internet blocking in Russia
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