Russia: Blocking websites linked to Mikhail Khodorkovsky

Russian authorities have blocked access to the websites of two media outlets and a rights group linked to dissident Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the exiled former oligarch said. Shortly afterwards, the two websites announced the closure of their operation.

"After calling all of Alexei Navalny's organizations 'extremist', authorities also blocked MBKh Media, Open Media and the Pravozachita Otkritki legal aid organization," Putin's opponent said on Twitter.

This morning the two media outlets were not accessible from Russia except via VPN, while the website of the rights organization appears as if it does not exist.

Russian regulator Roskomnadzor said it had blocked the sites at the request of the attorney general.

"The authorities do not want to be critical of what is happening in the country," he wrote on his Open Media Twitter account.

The website has stated that it received a five-year grant from Mikhail Khodorkovsky in 2017.

"We, together with the investor, have decided to stop working because the risks to staff are too great," explains Open Media.

A number of independent media outlets and organizations critical of the regime have recently been banned in Russia, amid growing opposition suppression as the September elections approach.

A recently passed law will ensure the exclusion from the vote of most members of the opposition and especially the supporters of the imprisoned opposition Alexei Navalny.

The Open Russia organization was declared "undesirable" in 2017 and then self-dissolved in 2019. The next structure established in its place was never approved by the Russian Ministry of Justice and also self-dissolved in 2021 due to fears for the safety of workers.

Former Open Russia director Andrei Pivovarov was arrested in June and has been in prison ever since.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky was arrested in 2003 and spent 10 years in prison. He was pardoned in 2013 and exiled to Europe, where he has founded organizations opposed to Vladimir Putin.