Finland’s Justice Ministry has decided to extradite to the United States Maxim Senakh, a Russian citizen accused of illegal hacking. According to Senakh’s lawyer, Igor Khitrukhin, Finnish authorities decided on January 5 to send Senakh to the US, though he wasn’t informed until January 8. Khitrukhin says the move is politically motivated and promises to appeal …
Finland decides to extradite Russian hacker to the US Read More
A Russian court on Wednesday sentenced a blogger to five years in jail for what it said was his extremist activity on the Internet after he urged people to attend a protest against high transport fares and criticised Russian intervention in Ukraine. Vadim Tyumenstev, 35, from the Siberian region of Tomsk, was also banned from using the Internet for three years in a case which Russian human rights activists said violated his …
Russian blogger sentenced to five years in prison for “extremist” posts Read More
An appeals court has approved a settlement agreement between photoblogger Ilya Varlamov and the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda, which was convicted of publishing 18 of Varlamov’s photographs without his permission. In accordance with the settlement, the newspaper must advertise Varlamov’s work on its website and the websites of its affiliates. Komsomolskaya Pravda has agreed to send 2 million visitors …
Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group have claimed an important victory in their fight to stop copyright infringement by VKontakte, Russia’s largest social network and the country’s most popular provider of music. A Russian court has ruled that VKontakte must introduce technology to effectively prevent the unauthorised upload of the companies’ sound recordings on to …
Universal and Warner Music groups win case against VKontakte Read More
Officials in Russia’s Kirov region have brought an administrative case against Apple, the maker of the iPhone, for illegally promoting homosexuality, according to police documents published by the Russian news site Gazeta.ru. The evidence against Apple is the set of emojis included with iOS 8.3, which contains several images depicting families with same-sex parents, gay pride …
Russian police investigate Apple for “propagating homosexuality” Read More
After blocking a Wikipedia article for less than than 18 hours, the Russian media watchdog Roskomnadzor removed it from a list of banned webpages this past Tuesday. At the end of July, a local court in the southern Astrakhan region declared that a Wikipedia article on charas — a form of hashish — violated the …
Russian telecom regulator blocked Wikipedia — then recanted Read More
The U.S. Justice Department has won the right to impound $300 million that it claims was paid in bribes by two major Russian telecoms firms to a close relative of Uzbek President Islam Karimov, news agency Bloomberg reported Friday. Justice Department officials claim that leading Russian mobile phone operator MTS and fellow telecoms giant VimpelCom …
US wins case to seize $300 million in alleged bribes by Russian telcos Read More
The U.S. has filed to seize $300 million that it claims was paid in bribes by two major Russian telecoms firms to a close relative of Uzbek President Islam Karimov in exchange for access to the Uzbek telecoms market, news agency Bloomberg reported Tuesday. The complaint filed by the U.S. Justice Department in a Manhattan …
U.S. goes after $300 million in alleged bribes paid by Russian telecom giants Read More
Facebook has deleted a post by Russian LGBT rights activist Lena Klimova, where she published images of people who have sent her death threats, Russian opposition-minded online publication Meduza reported. The full photo album had been first published on VKontakte (VK.com), Russia’s most popular social network, but Klimova also posted excerpts to her Facebook account. On April 21, …
Controversial post by Russian LGBT activist: VKontakte less restrictive than Facebook Read More
Russian Internet giant Yandex has requested that Russia’s Federal Anti-Monopoly Service investigate Google for violating Russian legislation, news agency RIA Novosti reported on Wednesday. The regulator now has one month to consider the request from Yandex, Russia’s top search engine and provider of a range of digital services, such as Yandex.Maps and Yandex.Music, a music streaming service.
A Russian man has filed a lawsuit against search giant Google, accusing it of violating his privacy by showing him advertisements based on comments made in private e-mails. Anton Burkov, from Yekaterinburg, filed the suit in a Moscow court when advertisements for French hotels and visa services began appearing alongside Google search results — shortly after discussing a trip to Strasbourg with friends.
Yesterday, Mail.ru Group, the LSE-listed Russian Internet giant, announced it now fully controls Vkontakte (VK.com), the leading Russian language social network with over 250 million registered accounts and 60 million daily users. The group, which already owned 52% of the company, bought the remaining 48% stake from UCP, the Russian investment fund that had become a …
