Russian Crypto Website Finally Unblocked
By Michael P. - June 5, 20180314
During past few years over 40 crypto-related websites were taken down by the Russian authorities. Now at least one of them is back online.
The City Court in St. Petersburg, Russia has ruled in favour of Bitcoininfo.ru and overturned the District Court’s decision to block the website. The site was banned in 2016, while cryptocurrency and all crypto-related sources were illegal in Russia.
“The St. Petersburg City Court overturned the District Court’s decision that recognized the information placed on the website Bitcoininfo.ru as prohibited for viewing.”
According to a press release, the website was banned after proceedings without the owners present. In addition, no request was made to remove the content considered to be illegal before the ban was issued.
Outside of government control
The takedown was requested due to publishing information about cryptocurrency, which is “outside of government control,” “facilitate growth of the shadow economy,” and “do not have specific consumer properties.”.
In April this year the Russian Supreme Court annulled the decision to ban access to 40 blocked websites. The sites were blocked due to “spreading information” about digital currency, which is “not backed by any real asset and does not provide information about its owners.”.