The social network VKontakte blocked, at the request of the Prosecutor General’s Office and Roskomnadzor, information on its resource, calling, according to departments, minors to participate in unauthorized actions. This was announced on Friday, January 22, in the press service of the social network.
“The information was blocked on the basis of the decision of the General Prosecutor’s Office and the order of Roskomnadzor,” TASS quoted representatives of VKontakte as saying.
Earlier that day, it became known that the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs would conduct a pre-investigation check into the organization of provocations and violent actions by the heads of the regional headquarters of blogger Alexei Navalny.
Previously, videos were posted on the TikTok app of young men in police uniforms who declared their support for unauthorized public events and their unwillingness to continue serving in law enforcement.
Also on this day, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin called unauthorized rallies on January 23 unacceptable. Sobyanin called attempts to involve underage children in activities cynical and urged residents of the capital to refuse to participate in illegal actions.
On January 21, the General Prosecutor’s Office of the Russian Federation issued repeated warnings in connection with the spread of calls for participation in unauthorized events. As the department recalled, these actions are an administrative violation and may result in sanctions. On the same day, five Internet services were issued a prosecutor’s warning about the inadmissibility of disseminating information with calls to participate in uncoordinated actions. The Prosecutor General’s Office demanded to restrict access to sites that publish such appeals to teenagers.
Also on Thursday, the Russian Interior Ministry reminded citizens that it would be held administratively liable for calls to participate in unauthorized rallies. It was noted that the police are preparing to maintain order at the rallies on 23 January.
Earlier, the hashtag #ChildrenVnePolitiki was launched on the Internet to ensure the safety of minors in connection with calls to go to unauthorized actions.
Alexei Navalny was detained at the Sheremetyevo airport on January 17 on his return from Berlin. The procedure was carried out by the officers of the search department of the FPS. According to the department, the blogger was on the wanted list for multiple violations of the probationary period from December 29, 2020.
At the same time, the Federal Penitentiary Service in Moscow took into account the fact that since August 22 last year, the Russian has been treated in the Berlin clinic “Charite”. According to the clinic, he was discharged on September 23, but the blogger did not respond to the notification of his appearance on October 23 and did not appear on registration, in accordance with which he was put on the wanted list.
Only in November did Navalny send a notification to the Federal Penitentiary Service that he was living in Berlin, where he was restoring his health. He did not provide official confirmation of treatment after discharge.
Navalny announced his decision to return to Russia on January 13. At the same time, the FSIN reported that it plans to detain him, since the court must decide on replacing his suspended sentence with a real one due to violations of the conditional sentence.
Navalny was brought to Berlin airport on January 17 in a motorcade with flashing lights. He was taken not to the terminal, but immediately to the airfield. He did not appear in the airport building and at the check-in counters. German journalists said that Navalny did not even personally receive boarding passes; employees of German special services also went through the procedure for him.