Restrictions of Russian Internet Resources in Ukraine: National Security, Censorship or Both?

Abstract

Abstract In this paper, the authors analyse the ambiguous political decision to ban the major Russian web resources from access to the Ukrainian market, in spite of heavy criticisms from local and foreign experts. While the supporters of the new internet policy claimed the new strategy to be coherent with cybersecurity priorities of the country, the opponents pointed out a set of legal and political limitations. Drawing on the setting and results of taking a new approach to information policy, we describe the fragility of Euromaidan democratic heritage and drawbacks of the current political regime. The logical method of legal interpretation has been applied to analyse the controversies of the current legislation on Russian internet resources restriction. The article concludes that Ukrainian post-Euromaidan governance model needs to consolidate the efforts in order to prove the commitment to freedom of speech as a core European value and replace spontaneous actions with an evidence-based approach to political decision-making.