Russia may ban Facebook and Telegram if the US decides to block the launch of Libra.

According to President Vladimir Putin’s special representative for IT, Dmitry Peskov, if Libra launches without sufficient control measures, “the likelihood of Facebook being blocked” will increase in Russia.

Peskov did later admit that the decision does not depend on the Russian government, but the American one if they were to eventually block Libra or Telegram’s cryptocurrency.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will defend Libra before the House Financial Services committee on October 23.

Libra’s co-creator, David Marcus, came under intense scrutiny in front of the Senate in August, with officials lamenting the decision to base the company in Switzerland and the potential threat to the US Dollar.

Finance ministers in France also declared that they will “block Facebook’s Libra project” as it poses a threat to governments’ monetary sovereignty.

Russia has already made threats to block Facebook in the past in connection to issues with data storage.

Various high profile companies have now pulled out of the Libra association amid regulatory concerns. The latest of which was PayPal, who got cold feet after admitting they will focus on advancing existing business priorities.

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