MOSCOW, June 14 (RAPSI, Nikolay Merkulov) – The Moscow City Court on Thursday upheld a lower court’s ruling to block Telegram messenger across Russia, RAPSI reported from the courtroom.

The court dismissed the messenger’s appeal seeking to overturn the ruling on blocking because of of adversarial principle’s contravention.

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. Roskomnadzor started blocking the messenger on April 16.

According to the Federal Law “On Information, Information Technologies and the Protection of Information”, organizers of information distribution on the Internet must submit information about users and their messages to the authorized governmental bodies conducting investigative activities and ensuring the state security.