KABLIS v. RUSSIA JUDGMENT 3 held at one of the special locations for public events designated by the Komi Republic government. The applicant received that decision the following day, 22 September 2015. 10. On 22 September 2015 the applicant published a new entry on his Internet blog, informing his readers that the town administration had refused to approve the venue behind the Lenin monument, and enclosing a copy of its decision of 21 September 2015. He said that a “people’s assembly” would be held instead at the same location and time. He explained that a “people’s assembly” was an assembly of people who gathered to discuss without there being any organisers. Unlike a “picket”, it was not possible to use placards during a “people’s assembly”. The applicant then stated that the official who had signed the refusal to approve the “picket” was the same official who had been responsible for a 30% increase in the cost of heating in the previous two years. 11. On 23 September 2015 the applicant also published a post on VKontakte,1 calling for participation in the public discussion on 25 September 2015. 12. On 24 September 2015 the applicant’s VKontakte account was blocked by the VKontakte administrator following an order by the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media and a deputy Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation. The deputy Prosecutor General found that the VKontakte post described in paragraph 11 above, which was publicly accessible, contained information about a “picket” to be held on 25 September 2015 at the crossroads of Lenin and Kommunisticheskaya streets. The town administration had, however, refused to allow the “picket” because it was prohibited to hold public events at that location. The post therefore amounted to campaigning for participation in an unlawful public event in breach of section 10 paragraph 1 of the Public Events Act (for a summary of the domestic law provisions, see Lashmankin and Others v. Russia, nos. 57818/09 and 14 others, § 249, 7 February 2017). The applicant’s VKontakte account therefore had to be blocked pursuant to section 15.3(1) of the Information Act (see paragraph 36 below). 13. On 25 September 2015 the applicant published a third entry on his blog. He asked what would happen if many people came to the “people’s assembly” later that day. He did not believe that it would make the Kremlin change its politics, appoint a responsible local person as the governor of the Komi Republic or stop unsubstantiated accusations against Mr Gaiser. He claimed, however, that a high participation rate would show that there were many people who were not afraid to express their opinion. The FSB and the Prosecutor General’s office were afraid of politically active people. He 1. VKontakte is a Russian online social media and social networking service similar to Facebook.