Roskomnadzor, the Kremlin's media and communications regulator, has blocked Russian Internet users from accessing the Crimean regional branch for the Ukrainian service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, according to an announcement today by Crimea's attorney general, Natalia Poklonskaya.
Poklonskaya says RFE/RL's Crimean branch is suspected of disseminating materials that “contain justifications for subversive activities and extremism, endlessly vilifying Crimean government agencies, and inciting ethnic hatred.”
“Based on the materials gathered by the Attorney General's Office of Crimea, Roskomnadzor is carrying out procedures to block access to the Web publication,” Poklonskaya said.
In late April 2016, Nikolai Semen, a journalist working for the regional branch of the Ukrainian service of RFE/RL in Crimea, was charged with inciting separatism. The Crimean Attorney General's Office said the charges related to the journalist's reporting on Ukrainian activists blockading supply roads from the Ukrainian mainland into Crimea.