The Prosecutor General’s Office demanded that Meta be recognized as an extremist organization and banned in Russia

The Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation sent an application to the court for the recognition of the American company Meta Platforms Inc. extremist organization and asked to ban its activities in Russia, Interfax reports.

Earlier today it became known that social networks Facebook and Instagram, which are part of the Meta corporation, announced their intention to lift the ban on calls for violence against the Russian military in posts.

Later, the State Duma called on the Prosecutor General and the Investigative Committee (IC) of the Russian Federation to assess this Meta decision.

In response to the situation, the Prosecutor General’s Office also demanded that Roskomnadzor restrict access to Instagram.

And the Investigative Committee has already opened a case on incitement to violence against Russians in connection with the actions of Meta employees.

To clarify, Meta includes Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp.

This decision was made “in connection with condoning the placement of calls for violent acts (murders) against citizens of the Russian Federation, including military personnel” on this site.

It also became known that the Prosecutor General’s Office of Russia is closing its Instagram account.

We also recall that on February 21, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed decrees recognizing the independence of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR), and on February 24 he made an urgent appeal to the Russians and announced a special military operation in Donbass. In his speech, he stated that “circumstances require decisive action from Russia” and stressed that “Russia will not allow Ukraine to have nuclear weapons.”

In response to Russia’s actions, Western countries (USA, Canada, European Union, Great Britain, Japan) announced new, tougher sanctions against the Russian Federation, including financial and economic ones.

In particular, Russian banks fell under the sanctions, including Sberbank, VTB, Novikombank, FC Otkritie and Sovcombank, and for a number of state-owned companies it was difficult to attract foreign capital.

Later, the EU countries and the United States agreed to disconnect Russian banks that fell under sanctions from the international system of interbank transactions and information exchange SWIFT. In addition, it was decided to freeze the assets of the Bank of Russia, which will create difficulties for its use of international reserves. EU countries also pledged to take steps to limit the sale of citizenship — the so-called “golden passports” that allow wealthy Russians connected to the Russian government to become citizens of EU states and gain access to their financial systems. In addition, the European Union, the United States, Canada and a number of other countries have closed the sky for Russian aircraft.

You can follow the chronicle of events around Ukraine here.