“A permanent campaign of repression.” A Russian promise to respond to the blocking of its media outlets

Russia vowed to respond to the apparent blocking of Russian official media on the Telegram social media platform in several European Union countries, denouncing a “censorship measure.”
The Telegram channels of the RIA Novosti news agency, the Rossiya, Pervi Kanal and NTV TV channels, and even the newspapers Izvestia and Rossiyskaya Gazeta are inaccessible.

Russian media

Media reported that this blocking was particularly reported in France, Belgium, Poland, the Netherlands, Greece and Italy.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said, “The systematic scanning of any source of unwanted information from the information space continues.”
She denounced a “permanent campaign of repression against Russian media in almost all EU countries.”

Russian media conflict with the West

She stressed that “these and other similar attacks against our media will not pass without a response from Russia.”
She added, “We reserve the right to respond in the same way,” denouncing a “political censorship measure” that conflicts with basic rights.
Neither the European Union authorities nor Telegram commented on this blocking, and the European Union has imposed restrictions on Russian media several times since the start of the Russian attack in Ukraine.

Many media outlets were banned from broadcasting

Last May, several media outlets, such as “Rossiyskaya Gazeta”, “Izvestia” and “RIA Novosti”, were banned from broadcasting in the European Union on charges of promoting and participating in Moscow’s war effort.
Russian-French Pavel Durov, head of the Telegram application, was arrested in France this summer on charges of committing crimes related to the application’s encrypted messaging service. He was released, but was placed under strict judicial supervision.

Russian cyber attacks

On the other hand, a pro-Russian group launched cyber attacks targeting several websites in Italy, according to what the Italian police announced the day before yesterday.
The Russian attacks targeted the websites of the Italian Foreign Ministry, the Malpensa and Milan-Linate airports, and the transportation systems in the cities of Siena and Turin.

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Taiani told reporters: “It is the third attack of its kind (on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) during the past three days.”