The second block is indefinite, and ASTRA will no longer be able to use the service, the company said. We are looking for a replacement for the service and will notify all Boosty subscribers about the new donation method via mail.
As previously reported, the account of ASTRA on the Boosty donation collection service was blocked, and then almost immediately unblocked, as the Busti specialist asked them to fulfill their conditions and make all publications on the service publicly available and free of charge in connection with the law on special accounts. To which ASTRA replied that the publication had no content on the service — only one publication about the publication’s birthday, which we made publicly available. The account has been unblocked. However, the day before, the Astra account was blocked again without explanation.
The service sent an explanation of the second lock a little later: “Access to your account has been restricted in accordance with clause 8.6 of the Boosty Service Agreement. The account will not be unblocked.”
Clause 8.6 of the agreement states that the service may delete a user’s account “to comply with applicable law or order or at the request of a court, law enforcement agency or other administrative or governmental authority,” or if you “provided inaccurate, fraudulent, outdated or incomplete information during account registration or after that.”, or if “the company has received complaints about your performance or behavior.”
Through the Boosty service, ASTRA readers donated about $1,500 a month to the publication. This amount covered the full salary of one journalist of the publication and partially the salary of another person. At the moment, the publication does not have the funds to cover these salaries. We are looking for a replacement for the service and thank every ASTRA reader who supported and supports the publication of donations. As soon as a replacement is found, we will notify all Boosty subscribers about the new donation method via mail.
The law has been in force in Russia since March 1, according to which “foreign agents” must open special accounts in Russia for their income. You will be able to use these funds only after removing the status.
ASTRA was recognized as a “foreign agent” in October 2024, however, does not comply with the laws of the Russian Federation on “foreign agency”, as it considers them repressive. Earlier, the editor-in-chief of ASTRA Anastasia Chumakova was fined for 35 thousand rubles for failure to report himself as the head of the media, recognized as a “foreign agent”.
Lawyers say that donating money to “foreign agents” is not prohibited, but it is recommended to do so in a non-public manner. There are no cases where donations to “foreign agents” would lead anyone to be included in the registry.
Earlier, Boosty blocked at least 26 of the 53 accounts of “foreign agents”, which have links to the service in the registry of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation. Among others, the accounts of politician Elvira Vikhareva, journalists Tatiana Felgenhauer and Maria Borzunova, sports commentator Alexander Shmurnov, columnist Yulia Latynina and film critic Anton Dolin were blocked.
As Medusa reminds us, Boosty was created by Mail.ru Group back in 2019. In the summer of 2024, the game developer My.Games, who owned Boosty, announced sale of the service to the structures of the Cypriot businessman, founder of the Broadsmart Group Pavel Haraneki. The company is now registered in the Netherlands.
