There are approximately ten Armenian websites banned in Russia, including Hetq, Armenian Times, Aysor, Ankakh, and more. Only two websites were unblocked due to the fact that they carried out the Roskomnadzor’s demand that, according to a demand from a court in Moscow, all information about Ruben Tatulyan needs to be removed.
Aravot did not carry out the demand to remove the publication of an interview with Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Shavarsh Kocharyan. Reporters asked the deputy minister after the National Assembly Foreign Affairs Committee session on January 11, 2018 about how former MFA advisor Ruben Tatulyan was put on the US Department of Treasury’s list of individuals and organizations that have connections to criminals and thieves in law.
After not carrying out this demand, the Russian version of our site was banned in Russia about a week ago.
However, we received another letter about this from the Roskomnadzor regarding the US list. It demanded that we remove Ruben Tatulyan’s name from that article within one day, using a court’s decision in the Tagansky district of Moscow as a reference, or else our website will be banned within three days in Russia.
In December of 2017, the US Department of Treasury published a list of individuals and organizations that have connections to criminals and thieves in law. The list states that three people, Gafur Rakhimov, Alimzhan Tokhtakhunov (Taiwanchik), and Ruben Tatulyan are accused of financing thieves in law. Two organizations that have connections with Ruben Tatulyan were also on the list. The people on this list are banned from entering the United States, their assets on US territory are frozen, and US citizens are banned from doing business with the people and organizations listed.
Our newspaper reposted the article by Voice of America.
Now, we simply must wait and see how the Roskomnadzor plans to ban a website that has already been banned.
Anna Israelyan
