Russian state censor forces news outlet to unpublish ‘discrediting’ report about drone strike on Kharkiv that didn’t even mention Russia’s military

Russia’s recently introduced “blog registry” is making its presence felt with a takedown order issued to the Telegram news channel “Ostorozhno, Novosti” against a post reporting a deadly drone attack against the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. According to editor-in-chief Sergey Titov, the federal censor contacted his outlet through the same email address it used when registering for Russia’s new “blog registry.” 

In the notification shared online by Titov, officials at Roskomnadzor claimed that the Ostorozhno, Novosti report contained “false information presented as reliable reporting” and supposedly discredited the Russian Armed Forces, even though the report didn’t even mention the Russian military. “It was simply information about casualties, citing local authorities and an image found on local social media. It was a very dry report — the kind that always seemed perfectly legal before,” Titov said. Ostorozhno, Novosti — a project based in Russia and launched by media figure Ksenia Sobchak — ultimately complied with the takedown order.

On his personal channel, Titov shared screenshots of Roskomnadzor’s report and the original Telegram post, which reported that one person in Kharkiv was killed and another 15 were 15 as a result of a drone attack. The report was likely referring to a Russian drone strike on Kharkiv on the evening of March 29.

In November 2024, Roskomnadzor began administering a new registry of bloggers with audiences exceeding 10,000 accounts. The agency uses the preexisting Gosuslugi State Services portal to register major channels and public pages. The registry is meant for popular bloggers on YouTube, TikTok, VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, and other platforms — but not Instagram, Facebook, or X, which aren’t currently on Russia’s list.