According to Poroshenko, the banned VKontakte and Mail.ru are "widely used by Russian special services to promote Russia's propaganda and conduct special information operations against Ukraine and its citizens." These companies contribute to Russia's special services in the collection, storage, use and dissemination of restricted information, namely Ukrainian citizens' personal data and correspondence.
Read alsoRussia's VKontakte closes office in KyivThe president is also convinced that "the content of these resources is aimed at manipulating public opinion through the dissemination of inaccurate, incomplete and biased information, as well as assisting the anti-Ukrainian protest potential [activists] in Ukraine and their involvement in anti-people actions and riots."
In his words, Mail.ru Group and Yandex are taking active measures to block the Ukrainian advertising companies' activities on the Internet and monopolize the online services market.
As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed a decree greenlighting a new set of sanctions against Russia, which include blocking access to Russian-based social networks. The document came into force on May 17.
