Russia’s top online social network, VKontakte, has been put on a ‘black list’ that bans it from distributing content in the country, according to a posting on the communications regulator’s web site.

VKontakte has 210 million registered users, of whom 47 million log on daily dwarfing Russian Facebook users.

Pavel Durov the social media sites founder fled Russia last month after being implicated in a bizarre traffic incident that preceded the sale of a large stake in the business.

VKontakte spokesman Georgy Lobushkin told Reuters he did not have any information regarding the decision by regulator Roskomnazdzor. VKontakte’s web site (www.vk.com) was still working. Roskomnadzor had no immediate comment.