Summer Blitz Against Sanctioned Goods Online
During a recent review of the registry of banned websites, RosKomSvoboda discovered a significant increase in the number of online resources offering products from countries subject to Russia’s so-called “counter-sanctions” (or “anti-sanctions”) introduced in August 2014. We pay close attention to this topic and couldn’t help but notice the processes accompanying other content blocks involving regional prosecutors. The restriction of such information has practically become routine, with courts issuing nearly identical rulings each time.
For example, in Mordovia, the “Ruzaevka Transport Prosecutor, acting in the interests of an indefinite group of people,” files lawsuits in the Leninsky District Court of Saransk, demanding a ban on sanctioned goods from Spain. This is just one example of this blocking industry—many such lawsuits are filed, and courts rarely deny the prosecutors’ requests.
In May of this year, at the request of the Ruzaevka Transport Prosecutor, the Leninsky Court of Saransk blocked a website selling Spanish apricots. It was added to the banned registry at the end of July.
In mid-summer, the same court restricted access to certain pages of the “Directory of Russian Enterprises | Business Contacts” and the Moldovan classifieds site “990.” However, by late August, only the page offering Spanish pears on the latter site was actually blocked.
Earlier, in June, the court blocked pages on the free classifieds sites “ProPokupki” and “Free Ads in Spain,” which also contained information about selling Spanish pears. Recently, only one site from the court’s list was added to the banned registry.
Back in May, the Pervomaisky District Court of Krasnodar, at the request of the prosecutor for the Central Administrative District, blocked a page offering Spanish jamĂłn. This information appeared in the banned registry only in mid-June.
Interestingly, the domain spanishjamon.ru had already been blocked for six months by a decision of the Kanavinsky District Court of Nizhny Novgorod, following a lawsuit from the local transport prosecutor. According to the court’s decision, a Finnish goods store was also supposed to be blocked, but for some reason, it was not added to the registry and remains accessible. How the Krasnodar prosecutors managed to overcome Roskomnadzor’s block and why they blocked an already-blocked site remains a mystery.
Notably, the Spanish jamón site had already caught the attention of Russian authorities in April of the previous year—at that time, a page about sausages was blocked, but it was added to the registry about a week before the entire site was blocked by the Kanavinsky court in February of this year.
Information about Spanish cherry tomatoes on the wholesale food portal Market-FMCG was blocked by the Central District Court of Orenburg in mid-May and appeared in the registry at the end of June. In this case, the local transport prosecutor also acted as the “political dietitian” for Russians.
Additionally, the Sterlitamak Transport Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Bashkortostan recently announced the discovery of websites selling Spanish jamón. The investigation found that the product was being sold as an import, with sellers indicating its price and country of origin, but without the required Russian labeling and certification. The prosecutor filed a lawsuit to block the identified websites, and the court’s decision will be sent to Roskomnadzor.
Meanwhile, the Northwestern Transport Prosecutor’s Office found websites selling sanctioned products from Finland, including dairy and meat products whose import is banned by a presidential decree. The prosecutor filed an administrative lawsuit to have the information on the site recognized as prohibited for distribution in Russia. The court granted the prosecutor’s request, and its decision will be sent to the St. Petersburg office of Roskomnadzor to add the page to the Unified Register of domain names containing prohibited information.
RosKomSvoboda will continue to monitor the internet and the registry of blocked sites, especially regarding “sanctioned” blocks, and will report on new developments in future publications.
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