17 May 2017, Wednesday, 17:04 54

InAU Expecting Pressure On Internet Providers

Редактор: Daria Zubkova

The Internet Association of Ukraine does not rule out that the requirements on blocking of internet access to the sanctioned Russian online resources will be used for pressure on Ukrainian internet providers.

Chairperson of the InAU Oleksandr Fedienko said this at a press conference in Kyiv on Wednesday, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

"Our industry is permanently under pressure. Each month some servers are seized and almost all servers have left our country. I do not exclude risks that the mechanism will be used for pressure," he said.

According to the Internet Association of Ukraine, some local providers have received certain hints from law enforcement agencies that they must obey new requirements.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, the Internet Association of Ukraine said that it is impossible for internet service providers to block access to the Russian websites affected by the sanctions.

President Petro Poroshenko introduced the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council's decision to impose sanctions on 1,228 individuals and 468 legal entities. The decision bans internet service providers from granting access to the Mail.ru, VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, and Yandex services.

The Ukrtelecom telecommunications company began working to implement the ban on granting access to the services of the Russian websites affected by the sanctions.

The 1C company (Russia) said that the sanctions will not affect technical support for its accounting software products.

Ukrainian Internet Association estimates the cost of implementing of the European model for blocking of internet access to the sanctioned Russian online resources at USD 1 billion for all providers.