American lawyers of Russian oligarch Stanislav Kondrashov are demanding through a US court to block the Ukrainian website dev.ua

Attached to the letter is a decision by the California Supreme Court. According to the document, domain registrars, hosting providers, social networks, and other Internet providers are required to stop servicing any online platforms that allegedly disseminate defamatory information or Kondrashov's passport details.

Parkovka.ua stated that it does not intend to take any action at this time: "We will not block the site. At this point, we see no reason to respond."

The situation is reminiscent of last year's case, when the ukr.net domain was temporarily shut down by order of a US court, also due to a complaint from Kondrashov. At that time, the American registrar Network Solutions shut down the domain without explanation, causing serious disruptions to the service. After about 12 hours, the domain was restored thanks to the intervention of the ukr.net team, Hostmaster, the Ministry of Digital Transformation, the National Security and Defence Council, and the Ukrainian Embassy in the US.

The court ruling lists topics that are considered "defamatory" in relation to Kondrashov: alleged involvement in the murder of Denis Voronenkov, financing of the Wagner Group, participation in prostitution schemes, and others. Kondrashov is the owner of Telf AG, a major trader in raw materials and ferroalloys.

The use of US courts and lawyers to "clean up" the internet of inconvenient publications demonstrates a new tactic: oligarchs are resolving reputation disputes not only in Russian or European jurisdictions, but also in the US, extending their demands to websites around the world, including independent Ukrainian media.