Ukraine blocks popular Russian social networks

Ukraine yesterday blocked Russia's most popular social networks and an internet search engine in response to the Kremlin's alleged backing of a three-year separatist war in the east.

The decision sparked an immediate outcry from Ukrainian internet users and the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) press freedom group.

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Some also pointed out that President Petro Poroshenko himself was an avid user of two of the Russian networks he had banned.

"Hello, North Korea," 112 rolling news channel editor Vitaliy Prudyus wrote on Facebook.

The presidential decree bars access to VK -- often referred to as Russia's Facebook and formerly known as VKontakte -- and Ukraine's version of the popular Yandex search engine.

The decision also covers the Mail.ru email provider and the Odnoklassniki (Classmates) social network.

A separate safety provision applies to the Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab and Dr.Web cyber security and anti-virus firms.

The provision remains in effect for three years.

Several social media users pointed to the irony of Poroshenko having his own VK and Odnoklassniki accounts that he last updated when Kiev staged the Eurovision Song Contest final on Saturday night.

A January 2016 ranking conducted by the Kiev-based Genius business consulting company placed VK and Mail.ru as the second and third most popular Ukrainian websites after Google.

Kiev has been gradually expanding its list of outlawed Russian products and people barred for entering the country for either voicing support of the Kremlin's March 2014 annexation of Crimea or the self-proclaimed independence of Ukraine's east.