Facebook says it has blocked the social-media accounts of Ramzan Kadyrov because the Kremlin-backed Chechen leader had become subject to financial and travel sanctions imposed by the U.S. government.
The company said in a statement Thursday it had the "legal obligation" to disable Kadyrov’s accounts on Facebook and Instagram, which it also owns, after the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on December 20 hit the Chechen leader with sanctions.
It was not immediately clear if the social-media network was in the process of disabling accounts of others on the sanction lists.
Facebook declined requests from RFE/RL for further information.