RUSSIA’S MEDIA WATCHDOG said it had restricted access to several independent media websites, including the BBC, tightening controls over the internet more than one week after Russia invaded Ukraine.
Access to websites of the BBC, the independent news website Meduza, German broadcaster Deutsche Welle, and the Russian-language website of the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Svoboda, were “limited” by Roskomnadzor, it said, following a request from prosecutors.
BBC Russia also said the domain https://bbc.com has not been added to the registry of banned sites.
German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle reported, in Russian, that the BBC site was not working in Russia.
According to a tweet posted by BBC Russian in Russian and translated into English, Meta (formerly known as Facebook) also appears to be blocked in the country.
The series of tweets (translated from Russian by the site’s in-built Google translator) stated: “Block tracking services report that there are problems accessing the BBC Russian Service website in Russia.
“The domain https://bbc.com is not listed in Roskomnadzor’s registry of banned sites.”
Also blocked are the Russian- and English-language online newspaper and news aggregator Meduza, the US government-funded broadcaster Radio Liberty and Google Play.
Roskomnadzor is the Kremlin’s Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media which maintains a official mandatory list of sites banned in Russia.
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