Block of Wikipedia in Russia
The free online encyclopedia Wikipedia was briefly blocked in Russia in August 2015. Some articles of Wikipedia were included into various censorship lists disseminated by the government. Further threats to block were made following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. 2015 blocking On July 28, 2012, President of Russia Vladimir Putin signed Federal Law No. 139-FZ "On Amending the Federal Law on the Protection of Children from Information Harmful to their Health and Development and certain legislative acts of the Russian Federation". This law introduced a number of provisions involving the blocking of Internet sites on the blacklist system and prohibited Internet resources. A number of experts expressed concerns that this law could be used to enable internet censorship. On November 1, 2012, the provisions concerning a unified register of domain names and URLs containing prohibited information came into force. A Unified Register of Prohibited Sites was created. Within three years of the adoption of the law, more than 25 Russian Wikipedia articles, mainly about drugs and suicide, entered the Unified Register of Prohibited Sites. Most of these articles, after some time, were removed from the register. However, on August 24, 2015, there was a short blocking of Wikipedia in