MOSCOW, April 28 (RAPSI) – The Moscow Commercial Court has registered a claim for damages a St. Petersburg Investory company filed against Russia’s media watchdog Roskomnadzor and the Finance Ministry over blocking of Telegram messenger, the court database reads on Saturday. The claimant says that the defendants’ actions resulted in a decline in the data-handling capacity of the company thus causing damages in the amount of 5 million rubles (about $80,500 at the current exchange rate). The date of the hearings has not been set as yet.

Earlier Roskomnadzor denied allegations its actions infringed on the operation of web-based products of Google, such as Gmail, Youtube, Google.ru and others.

Roskomnadzor noted that these products were not on blacklists and that Internet providers were not instructed to block them. As to the problems users experienced with respect to Google.ru, the watchdog stated that these could occur due to inferior filtration systems run by small-scale operators. On April 16, Roskomnadzor sent communications providers data on Telegram Messenger LLP websites for blocking.

Moscow’s Tagansky District Court ordered restriction of access to Telegram in Russia on April 13. The court tasked Roskomnadzor with putting a stop to sending and receiving messages in Telegram until the messenger fulfills its obligations by providing deciphering keys. The ruling came into force immediately.

According to the communications watchdog’s statement, Roskomnadzor received the Moscow court’s ruling and forwarded the relevant information to operators.