MOSCOW, May 17 (RAPSI) – The Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjørn Jagland has expressed his concern regarding blocking of several major Russian social networks and websites in Ukraine by a decree of President Petro Poroshenko, the Council’s press-release reads on Wednesday.

“Blocking of social networks, search engines, mail services and news web sites goes against our common understanding of freedom of expression and freedom of the media,” Jagland said.

On Tuesday, Ukraine’s President Poroshenko issued a decree on extension of sanctions against 1,228 Russian citizens and 468 legal entities.

Individual restrictive measures include among others ban on entry into Ukraine for up to 3 years; blocking of assets for up to 3 years; prohibition on participation in privatization, lease of government-owned property; cancellation of official visits, meetings and negotiations; deprivation of state awards; ban on establishment of a business connection and carrying on business in Ukraine.

Blocking of assets would be applied to companies as well. Moreover, legal entities would be restricted from trading. Sanctions against companies also include suspension of executing economical and financial obligations and measures on prevention of disinvestment.

Among other legal entities, major Russian social networks, websites and online services were also subjected to these sanctions. Ukraine introduced restrictive measures against such Russian giants as Yandex, Kaspersky Lab, Vkontakte and Odnoklassniki social networks, Mail.ru and others.