俄羅斯封禁Facebook抗議活動網頁

Russia has blocked a Facebook page calling for a protest in support of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, as the Kremlin tightens its control of the internet and social media.

The move capped a week of drama in Russia, where a collapse in the value of the rouble triggered widespread alarm and rattled the population’s confidence in President Vladimir Putin.

The Facebook page was set up after prosecutors on Friday asked for a 10-year jail sentence for Mr Navalny on embezzlement charges that critics say are politically motivated.

As of Sunday afternoon, 12,000 people had said they would attend the protest, which was called for January 15, the date of the verdict in Mr Navalny’s case. A separate Facebook page, set up after the first one was blocked, had attracted 15,700 promises of attendance.

Mr Navalny, an anti-corruption blogger sharply critical of Mr Putin, was a central figure in the 2011-12 protests that shook Moscow after the most recent presidential elections. Last year he ran unsuccessfully for Moscow mayor, but since February has been living under house arrest amid a series of investigations into his affairs.

Vadim Ampelonsky, a spokesman for communications regulator Roskomnadzor, told Interfax on Saturday that the prosecutor-general had requested that access be blocked “to internet pages on Facebook which contain calls to unauthorised mass events”.

The move comes amid a growing crackdown on the Russian opposition and paranoia in the Kremlin about the possibility of a popular revolution in the mould of Ukraine’s Maidan square or the Arab Spring.

At his annual press conference on Thursday, Mr Putin said “the border line between the opposition and the fifth column is very thin”, using a Stalin-era term to describe traitors within Russia that Mr Putin has repopularised.

翻譯僅供參考

俄羅斯加大了對互聯網和社交媒體的控制力度，封禁了一個呼籲開展抗議活動、支持反對派領導人阿列克謝•納瓦爾尼(Alexei Navalny)的Facebook網頁。

週五，俄羅斯檢方以貪污罪提請判處納瓦爾尼10年監禁，這個Facebook頁面是在那之後設立的。批評者認爲，檢方這一指控帶有政治目的。

有人呼籲在納瓦爾尼案判決當日，即2015年1月15日舉行這一抗議活動。截至週日下午，已有1.2萬人表示會參加該抗議活動。此外，在第一個Facebook網頁被封之後，有人在Facebook上另外設立了一個網頁。後者吸引了1.57萬人表態，承諾將參與該抗議活動。

納瓦爾尼是一名對俄羅斯總統弗拉基米爾•普京(Vladimir Putin)持尖銳批評態度的反腐敗博主。他是2011年到2012年期間俄羅斯多起抗議活動的核心人物。這些抗議活動發生在俄羅斯最近一次總統選舉之後，它們令俄羅斯政府十分不安。去年，他還曾競選莫斯科市長，但並未成功。不過，自今年2月以來，他因多起事件遭到一系列調查，並一直處於軟禁之中。

週六，俄羅斯通信監管部門Roskomnadzor發言人瓦季姆•安佩龍斯基(Vadim Ampelonsky)告訴俄羅斯國際文傳電訊社(Interfax)，俄羅斯總檢察長要求“對含有呼籲開展未經批准的大規模事件的網頁予以封禁”。

這一舉措的推出，正值俄羅斯加大對反對派打擊力度之際。同時，俄羅斯政府還十分偏執地認爲，俄羅斯可能發生烏克蘭獨立廣場(Maidan square)模式或阿拉伯之春(Arab Spring)模式的人民革命。

今年，俄羅斯加大了對互聯網的管控。今年2月，俄羅斯生效了多項法律，令總檢察長可以在無需法院命令的情況下，下令封禁網站或社交媒體賬戶。