MOSCOW, June 15 (RAPSI) – The Moscow Commercial Court will hear a lawsuit filed by Investory company seeking to recover 5 million rubles ($79,600) in losses allegedly caused by Russia’s media watchdog Roskomandzor and the Ministry of Finance due to blocking Telegram messenger, the court documents read.
The hearings are scheduled for July 6. Previously, the court dismissed the lawsuit twice.
The plaintiff 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.
