Wikimedia Ru community to shut down - executive director

MOSCOW. Dec 19 (Interfax) - The Wikimedia Ru organization, which supports global Wikipedia projects in Russia, is shutting down, and the process will take several months, Wikimedia Ru Executive Director Stanislav Kozlovsky said.

Kozlovsky said he was told by the dean's office of Moscow State University's department of psychology that he would soon be designated as a foreign agent by the Russian Justice Ministry, and due to this it was suggested that he resign. Kozlovsky, who served as an assistant professor at the department for almost 25 years, tendered his resignation on Monday.

"A general meeting of Wikimedia Ru took place yesterday, and I told them my story. It was a common decision to shut down the organization. The liquidation process will take several months," Kozlovsky said in a blog on the Russian Wikipedia forum.

Wikimedia Ru supports Wiki projects in Russia but does not control the encyclopedia's website.

Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. is a non-profit charity supporting the infrastructure for several multi-lingual crowdfunding Wiki projects, including Wikipedia. The Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor) listed it as a foreign company that must comply with the Russian "grounding" law. Roskomnadzor repeatedly filed motions against the foundation for failing to remove information prohibited in Russia, which led to it being fined by courts.