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.

翻译仅供参考

俄罗斯加大了对互联网和社交媒体的控制力度，封禁了一个呼吁开展抗议活动、支持反对派领导人阿列克谢•纳瓦尔尼(Alexei Navalny)的Facebook网页。

周五，俄罗斯检方以贪污罪提请判处纳瓦尔尼10年监禁，这个Facebook页面是在那之后设立的。批评者认为，检方这一指控带有政治目的。

有人呼吁在纳瓦尔尼案判决当日，即2015年1月15日举行这一抗议活动。截至周日下午，已有1.2万人表示会参加该抗议活动。此外，在第一个Facebook网页被封之后，有人在Facebook上另外设立了一个网页。后者吸引了1.57万人表态，承诺将参与该抗议活动。

纳瓦尔尼是一名对俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔•普京(Vladimir Putin)持尖锐批评态度的反腐败博主。他是2011年到2012年期间俄罗斯多起抗议活动的核心人物。这些抗议活动发生在俄罗斯最近一次总统选举之后，它们令俄罗斯政府十分不安。去年，他还曾竞选莫斯科市长，但并未成功。不过，自今年2月以来，他因多起事件遭到一系列调查，并一直处于软禁之中。

周六，俄罗斯通信监管部门Roskomnadzor发言人瓦季姆•安佩龙斯基(Vadim Ampelonsky)告诉俄罗斯国际文传电讯社(Interfax)，俄罗斯总检察长要求“对含有呼吁开展未经批准的大规模事件的网页予以封禁”。

这一举措的推出，正值俄罗斯加大对反对派打击力度之际。同时，俄罗斯政府还十分偏执地认为，俄罗斯可能发生乌克兰独立广场(Maidan square)模式或阿拉伯之春(Arab Spring)模式的人民革命。

今年，俄罗斯加大了对互联网的管控。今年2月，俄罗斯生效了多项法律，令总检察长可以在无需法院命令的情况下，下令封禁网站或社交媒体账户。