GROZNY, May 13 (RIA Novosti) – Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said on Monday the time was ripe to restore access to YouTube, blocked in the mainly Islamic North Caucasus republic last year for hosting the controversial film Innocence of Muslims.
A Moscow court declared the film extremist in October and imposed an official countrywide ban on it. Prior to that, a court in Chechnya’s capital Grozny also ruled against the film’s distribution, prompting content providers to limit access to YouTube in the republic. Access to YouTube is not restricted in most other parts of Russia, as the site blocked access to the film after it received a formal court order to do so.
“I think it will be right for a court to decide to unblock access to the video sharing site, because the task has already been fulfilled and limiting free access for the republic’s residents now makes no sense,” Kadyrov said.
The privately produced US movie Innocence of Muslims has triggered widespread protests in the Muslim world. In Libya, the film was linked to an attack on the US consulate that left Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other American officials dead.
