The free online encyclopedia Wikipedia was briefly blocked in Russia in August 2015. Some articles of Wikipedia were included into various censorship lists disseminated by the government. Further threats to block were made following the

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...

2015 blocking

On July 28, 2012, President of Russia Vladimir Putin signed Federal Law No. 139-FZ "On Amending the Federal Law on the Protection of Children from Information Harmful to their Health and Development and certain legislative acts of the Russian Federation". This law introduced a number of provisions involving the blocking of Internet sites on the blacklist system and prohibited Internet resources. A number of experts expressed concerns that this law could be used to enable internet censorship. On November 1, 2012, the provisions concerning a unified register of domain names and URLs containing prohibited information came into force. A Unified Register of Prohibited Sites was created. Within three years of the adoption of the law, more than 25 Russian Wikipedia articles, mainly about

drugs A drug is any chemical substance that causes a change in an organism's physiology or psychology when consumed. Drugs are typically distinguished from food and substances that provide nutritional support. Consumption of drugs can be via inhalat ...

and

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...

, entered the Unified Register of Prohibited Sites. Most of these articles, after some time, were removed from the register. However, on August 24, 2015, there was a short blocking of Wikipedia in Russia.

2022 threat to block

On March 1, 2022, Roskomnadzor, the Russian agency for monitoring and censoring mass media, wrote to the Wikimedia Foundation asking for removal of the article "" ('

Russia's invasion of Ukraine (2022) On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...

') on the United States-hosted Russian Wikipedia. The agency threatened to block access to the site, claiming that the article contained "illegally distributed information" including "reports about numerous casualties among service personnel of the Russian Federation and also the civilian population of Ukraine, including children". On March 11, 2022, a Russian Wikipedia editor based in Minsk, Belarus, Mark Bernstein, was detained by the Belarusian security service GUBOPiK after he was accused online of violating the 2022 Russian fake news law for his edits on articles covering the

. On March 16, 2022, the

Russian Agency of Legal and Judicial Information The Russian Agency of Legal and Judicial Information (russian: link=no, Российское агентство правовой и судебной информации), abbreviated in Russian as ''РАПСИ'' (), is a Russian news agency spe ...

(a news agency founded by the

RIA Novosti RIA Novosti (russian: РИА Новости), sometimes referred to as RIAN () or RIA (russian: РИА, label=none) is a Russian state-owned domestic news agency. On 9 December 2013 by a decree of Vladimir Putin it was liquidated and its asse ...

, the

Constitutional Court of Russia A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these princip ...

, the

Supreme Court of Russia The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation (russian: links=no, Верховный суд Российской Федерации, Verkhovny sud Rossiyskoy Federatsii) is a court within the judiciary of Russia and the court of last resort in ...

, and the

Supreme Court of Arbitration of Russia The Supreme Court of Arbitration of the Russian Federation (also translated as the High rArbitration Court of the Russian Federation; Russian: ) was the court of final instance in commercial disputes in Russia. Additionally, it supervised the wor ...

in 2009) published an interview of Alexander Malkevich, the deputy chairman of the commission on the development of information society, media and mass communications of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation. In this interview, Malkevich said that Wikipedia (both Russian and others) was becoming a "bridgehead for informational war against Russia". He also stated that Russian law-enforcement agencies had identified thirteen persons who were carrying out "politically engaged editing" Wikipedia's articles, and about 30,000 bloggers "participating in informational war against Russia". According to ''

Novaya Gazeta ''Novaya Gazeta'' ( rus, Новая газета, t=New Gazette, p=ˈnovəjə ɡɐˈzʲetə) is an independent Russian newspaper known for its critical and investigative coverage of Russian political and social affairs. It is published in Mo ...

'', pro-Kremlin structures related to Yevgeny Prigozhin are actively involved in doxing "coordinators of an informational attack on Russia", including Wikipedia editors. ''Novaya Gazeta'' also reports that Special Communications Service of Russia (a division of the Federal Protective Service) employees are trying to disseminate pro-Kremlin propaganda by editing Wikipedia articles. On May 18, 2022, Roskomnadzor demanded to remove articles about the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and the term "

Rashism Ruscism, also known as Rashism,, ; , group=lower-alpha Russism,, group=lower-alpha or Russian fascism,; , group=lower-alpha is a term used by a number of scholars, politicians and publicists to describe the Ideology, political ideology and s ...

" from the English Wikipedia. On March 31, 2022, Russian media censorship agency Roskomnadzor threatened to fine Wikimedia up to 4 million rubles (about ) if it did not delete information about the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine that is "misinforming" Russians. In April–May 2022, the Russian authorities put several Wikipedia articles on their list of forbidden sites. The list included the articles on the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and Rashism, several articles on Russian Wikipedia devoted to military action and war crimes during the Russo-Ukrainian War, and two sections of the Russian article about Vladimir Putin. On July 20, due to the refusal of Wikipedia to remove the articles about the Russo-Ukrainian war, Roskomnadzor ordered search engines to mark Wikipedia as a violator of Russian laws.

References

External links

Russian invasion of Ukraine (2022)
ussian Wikipedia article ( Google Translate) {{Censorship and websites Russia Internet censorship in Russia August 2015 events in Russia March 2022 events in Russia Reactions to the Russian invasion of Ukraine 2015 in computing 2022 in computing Information operations and warfare

2015 blocking

2022 threat to block

See also

References

External links