Russian authorities have updated the country’s Internet blacklist nearly 600 different websites, including online poker sites, in an operation that some consider to be the first step of a major crackdown on online gambling.

With a standard procedure that is usually adopted for censoring websites promoting child pornography and illegal drugs, on March 21, Russia’s Internet Service Providers (ISPs) blocked access to a large number of online gambling sites including international giants like PokerStars, partypoker, Unibet and Titan Poker.

“The request came straight from the prosecutor office,” said Maxim Ksenzov, the deputy head of Russia’s federal telecommunications watchdog Roskomnadzor, when answering questions from Russia’s TJournal chief editor Nikita Likhachev on Twitter.

“The action was taken following an order issued back in June 2013,” Kseonzov explained. However, “the prosecutor did not specify which part of the current regulation the decision is based on.”

According to Likhachev, the decision may have been motivated by violations of laws that regulate gambling in Russia, the same ones that forced Russian ISP Beeline to block access to PokerStars.com back in September, 2013.

Although the block only disabled access to the blacklisted websites and did not alter the functioning nor the accessibility the actual poker clients, several 2+2 Forum users discussed their thoughts on the issue and expressed concerns about the future of Russia’s online poker industry.

You can read more at Poker News.