Ukrainian courts punished 9 administrators of communities in Odnoklassniki and VKontakte – SBU

Since the beginning of 2017, Ukrainian courts have issued nine convictions in respect of owners and administrators of communities in Russian social networks VKontakte and Odnoklassniki.

As reported by the press-service of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).

According to the press-service, SBU investigators have registered 23 types of criminal proceedings during this period.

According to the SBU, since early May, the Special Services stopped the activities of 10 owners and administrators of such anti-Ukrainian communities.

“The law-enforcers detected coordinators of separatist resources in Kyiv, Kherson and Kharkiv regions. Administrators by order of Russian special services curators posted information on the network with public calls to overthrow constitutional order, changing the borders of the Ukrainian territory, agitated for the assistance of the “DPR/LPR” terrorist organizations”, – said in the statement.

During searches in the residences of the offenders the SBU officials detected computer equipment with evidences of conducting anti-Ukrainian activities in Russian social networks VKontakte and Odnoklassniki. The detainees will be held responsible under Articles of the Criminal Code such as: “Actions aimed at forceful change or overthrow of the constitutional order or take-over of government”, “Trespass against territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine”, “Creation of a terrorist group or terrorist organization”.

Earlier, on May 25, the SBU stated that 800 anti-Ukrainian communities were operating in the Russian social networks VKontakte and Odnoklassniki.

Vasyl Hrytsak, Head of the SBU, also reported that the mechanism for blocking Russian Internet resources has not yet been developed, but “it will be implemented”.

As a reminder, on May 16, 2017, President Petro Poroshenko signed a decree that introduced the decision of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine to update the list of sanctions against a number of Russian companies, including Aeroflot, VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, Yandex and a number of media resources.