The Prosecutor General's Office demanded the removal of six Telegram channels, as well as 11 posts in Telegram about the president's niece Anna Tsivileva, which, according to the agency, contained "unreliable socially significant information," noted "Verstka"* in the Tagansky court ruling. On August 13, Telegram was fined 4 million rubles in court for refusing to delete information at the request of the Russian authorities
According to the document, from October 2022 to March 2024, the prosecutor's office demanded the removal of the Chechen opposition channel 1ADAT, the channel of Ukrainian journalist Yuriy Butusov, Israeli military analyst Yigal Levin, Belarusian opposition channel Nexta, as well as the channels of the Ukrainian news agency UNIAN and the channel "Pravda Gerashchenko". Which specific posts prompted the prosecutor's demands are not specified in the ruling.
The Prosecutor General's Office also demanded the removal of 11 posts published by the Telegram channels "Radio Liberty"**, the media article aggregator "Otchitka", as well as the channels "Wife of a Soldier", "Mobilization", Svodka Material, "LIStok", "Polyanitsa", and "Green Beacon". All these posts discussed the "Defenders of the Fatherland" fund. In particular, that it was allocated tens of billions of rubles from the budget because it is headed by the president's niece Anna Tsivileva.
Telegram did not comply with the prosecutor's demands and was fined for "not deleting information banned in the Russian Federation". Since November 2023, the messenger has had five fines under this article. Previously, court decisions were either not published in the registry or were published in a redacted form.
* Recognized as a "foreign agent" in Russia.
** Recognized as a "foreign agent" and "undesirable" organization in Russia.