Ukraine's Sanctions Against Russian IT Companies 'Economic Warfare'

Ukrainian sanctions against those Russian IT companies, whose products are popular in Ukraine, are an act of economic warfare, Russian internet ombudsman Dmitry Marinichev told Sputnik on Tuesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Earlier in the day, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko enacted the decision of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine to expand the list of sanctioned Russian individuals and legal entities and to extend the duration of these sanctions. Russian social networks VK (VKontakte), Odnoklassniki and the Mail.ru internet service were included on the list of sanctioned entities.

"I would primarily call it economic warfare. Because Russia produces these technological products, which are popular in Ukraine and the ban is, in fact, a spoke in the wheel for the Russian business that will lose its [part of the] market and, of course, the revenue," Marinichev said.

He pointed out that the measures would have a negative effect on Ukrainians who use the services that have been targeted by new sanctions. The ombudsman also said that he believes access to these services in Ukraine would not be completely blocked.

"I think IP addresses will be blocked, which is the simplest way of blocking websites. And, of course, it is easy to bypass it," Marinichev said.

Earlier in the day, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow regarded Kiev's decision to expand sanctions against Russian individuals and legal entities as another manifestation of an unfriendly and short-sighted policy against Russia.