MOSCOW, May 8 (RAPSI) – The Moscow Commercial Court has set aside until June 7 a lawsuit filed by Investory company against the communications agency Roskomnadzor and Russia’s Finance Ministry over blocking of Telegram, according to court records.
The plaintiff asked the court to collect 5 million rubles (about $80,000) from the defendants for damages caused by restriction of access to the messenger. The claimant says that the defendants’ actions resulted in a decline in the firm’s data-handling capacity.
Earlier, Roskomnadzor denied allegations its actions infringed on the operation of web-based products of Google, such as Gmail, Youtube, Google.ru and others.
The watchdog noted that these products were not on blacklists and Internet providers were not instructed to block them. As to the problems users experienced with respect to Google.ru, the watchdog stated that they 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.