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VK, Yandex to fade away like ICQ and AltaVista

The purpose of the sanctions is "to complicate access to the resources of Russian propaganda."

VK, Yandex to fade away like ICQ and AltaVista
Photo: Photo: Vadym Krutyvus

Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine Dmytro Shymkiv expects that Russian Internet services that fall under the recently imposed Ukrainian sanctions will lose their popularity in Ukraine in the same way as it happened with ICQ and AltaVista. "Indeed, both Tor and VPN they all do exist, but the cost of blocking at such a level is much higher and complex. Our purpose is making the access to Russian propaganda resources harder. If you access a social network via Tor, you lose a lot of functional, eg notifications," he said.

"There was ICQ. Where has it gone? There were other services like AltaVista. Any recollection? No. They all were replaced by alternative services. People chose what is easier and more accessible," Shymkiv said.

The decision of the National Security and Defense Council, which President Petro Poroshenko put into effect on 16 May, expanded the list of individuals and legal entities of the Russian Federation, against whom sanctions were imposed. The expanded list includes 1,228 individuals and 468 legal entities. In particular, the access to social networks VKontakte and Odnoklassniki, as well as to Mail.ru and Yandex will be banned in Ukraine.

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