OTTAWA, ON (April 20, 2023): Apparently Russia’s “Federal service for supervision of communications, information technology, and mass media” doesn’t like our website – don’t worry, we’re not taking it too hard.
Our web host just received a complaint about our website from the Kremlin. The complaint outlined that our site is “in violation of the distribution of information” deemed inappropriate by the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation.
We aren’t sure what the Russian Prosecutor General took issue with, they demanded our entire website to be taken down, but it probably has something to do with our consistent efforts to call out Russia’s unprovoked, unjustifiable, and wholly unacceptable assault on Ukraine or our work to prevent Russian disinformation campaigns from corrupting Canada’s democracy.
The complaint says that our website is in violation of “the law.” But what law? The complaint is an attempt to silence MLI through extraterritorial application of Russian law. Thankfully, Russian censorship has no legal authority in Canada whatsoever.
This attempt to have our website taken down is simply Russia’s latest attempt to silence MLI and the work of our senior fellows.
In 2022, the Institute was officially sanctioned by the Kremlin along with several of our senior fellows:
- Chris Alexander, Distinguished Fellow
- Aurel Braun, Advisory Council Member
- Charles Burton, Senior Fellow
- Balkan Devlen, Senior Fellow
- Marcus Kolga, Senior Fellow
- Shuvaloy Majumdar, Former Foreign Policy Program Director
- Richard Shimooka, Senior Fellow
- Sarah Teich, Senior Fellow
We’ve also been the target of multiple cyber-attacks, including distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) and phishing attacks.
More seriously, in 2020, York Region Police investigated pro-Kremlin death threats against Marcus Kolga.
Learn more about MLI’s work in promoting Canada’s interests in the face of Russian aggression by reading our previous releases:
- MLI Senior Fellow Marcus Kolga recognized in Kremlin’s “blacklist”
- Majumdar, Devlen, and Shimooka recognized as MLI’s latest additions to Kremlin “Stop List”
- MLI Senior Fellow Charles Burton added to Russian sanctions list
- The Macdonald-Laurier Institute listed as “undesirable” in Russia
- MLI Senior Fellow Sarah Teich added to Russian Sanction list
The Macdonald-Laurier Institute will continue to speak truth to power in calling out authoritarian regimes (and we’ll keep using our website to do so).
For further information, media are invited to contact:
Skander Belouizdad
Communications Officer
613-482-8327 x111
skander.belouizdad@macdonaldlaurier.ca
