On Thursday, 10 September, Russian Telecom services Beeline and MTC began to implement the government’s new restrictions on certain Yahoo and Google services.
Both RT and Rossiyskaya Gazeta featured stories on the blockage. Vadim Ampelonsky, spokesman for government regulator Roskomnadzor, told reporters that the restrictions will impact Yahoo mail, Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance and Yahoo Video services.
Ampelonsky indicated that the Yahoo search services will remain open. Roskomnadzor had instructed Yahoo and Google to take down known propaganda sites, and certain videos, associated with the terrorist group “Islamic State”. So far, it appears that Yahoo and Google have refused.
Last month Facebook defied a Russian government order to allow access to all Russian account holders, and to hold this data on servers located inside Russia. As of today it is unclear whether this is a permanent blockage, or just a flexing of governmental muscles.
Here at the Mendeleyev Journal our Gmail worked fine all day, however Yahoo was been on and off during the day. Since it is unclear as to whether this is temporary or permanent, readers who are communicating with someone who is using Yahoo or Gmail in Russia, might be well advised to know the email addresses at Russian services for important Russian contacts.
Rather than risking Yahoo and Gmail messages being blocked into Russia, readers who email contacts in Russia may wish to establish free email accounts at one of the popular Russian email services, such as Mail.ru, Yandex.ru, imail.ru and inbox.ru, etc.