Large Belarusian IT portal losing its .by domain over new law
translate.google.com
translate.google.com
Because of the strong economic ties between Russia and Belarus, the sanctions in Russia is also causing a huge devaluation on Belarusian currency.
My friends have been telling me of long lines at the banks to convert their money to Dollar. To prevent the rush, starting today, there is a 30% tax on converting your money to Dollar. Essentially a 30% devaluation of their currency.
Since many things are imported in Belarus any currency devaluation effects the price of goods, so people rushed to stores to buy anything they can (and now I've been told the shelves are almost empty).
But here's another issue, prices seem to be control by the government. For instance, when you go to restaurants all menus that have price on them, have a stamp and signature (think of it like a notarized stamp). This is so restaurants wont be able to increase the price as they wish.
From the google translation, it seems to me the online store started increasing their prices to match the devaluated currency and the government didn't like it. Because it contradicts their message on stability of their currency. They might have done the same at a physical store in this case.
(just so that the URL doesn't get masked by translate.google.com)
It's for this reason that solutions such as Namecoin and other decentralized solutions are increasingly intriguing to me.
This is very-very old project and I don't believe it had anything illegal going on.
My personal suspicions are that it is more political issue, rather than doing something illegal. Site was covering many news events, including showing off 'inefficiencies' of belarus government. I might be wrong tho.
Creating 301 redirect to portal copy hosted in stable jurisdiction.