Russia asks Twitter to delete MBK media account, news site claims

A 3D-printed Twitter logo displayed in front of the Russian flag is seen in this illustration image, October 27, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

MOSCOW, March 17 (Reuters) – Russia has demanded that Twitter remove the account of media outlet MBK, a news site critical of the Kremlin, for what it called a violation of Russian law, MBK said on Wednesday.

MBK said he was accused of posting content from Open Russia, a UK-based group founded by exiled former oil tycoon and Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and which Moscow has called a undesirable and banned under a law passed in 2015.

MBK, which Russia blocked in 2018, is funded by Khodorkovsky.

Moscow said last week it slowed the speed of Twitter (TWTR.N) in Russia in retaliation for what it described as a failure to remove a specific list of banned content and threatened on Tuesday to completely block the service within a month if his demands have not been met. Read more

MBK media published a message from Roskomnadzor, the Russian communications regulator, which said that Twitter had received an official request regarding the content of the @MBKhMedia account.

Twitter declined to comment.

Roskomnadzor said the MBK outlet’s Twitter account contained material from an organization deemed “undesirable” in Russia, an allegation denied by the news site.

“The editorial staff did not receive any warning from Roskomnadzor,” MBK media editor Veronica Kutsyllo said. “MBK media… is a media organization that has no relationship with any organization, desirable or undesirable from Roskomnadzor’s point of view.

“We do not publish anyone’s material other than our own.”

Reporting by Alexander Marrow; Editing by Giles Elgood

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