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It has been noticed that the Russian telecommunication agency has officially ordered the internet providers to block the professional networking websites of LinkedIn. TechCrunch reports that an old law requires tech companies to store Russian citizens' personal data on servers located in Russia.

In fact, the November 17 order has made LinkedIn as one of the largest and best-known websites that have been hit by this two-year-old law.

The telecommunication agency named Roskomnadzor states that it was implementing a court decision which found that LinkedIn has not confirmed to the law. On November 10, LinkedIn's appeal against that ruling was rejected by a Moscow court.

Linkedin representatives are now planning to meet the officials of the telecommunication agency so as to discuss the matter.

In 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin brought into practice (Law) the Russian law on data storage which was a part of a package of surveillance legislation until then.

A Linkedin spokesperson confirmed that the company was already receiving complaints from Russian users who are unable to access the site.

As Roskomnadzor has blocked Linkedin the later denies access to millions of members which it has in Russia including some companies as well who use LinkedIn to grow their business. Russia justifies that its rule on localized servers is a way to protect the user's personal data.

This ban occurs after Linkedin has been acquired by Microsoft for $26.2 billion. Microsoft tried to meet the Russian regulators on Friday, 11th of November as a last minute attempt to hold off the ban.

There are unlimited number of international sites accessible in Russia. All these sites are not hosting data within the country. It is not clear why Linkedin was targeted in this case having 467 million users and only 5 million registered users in Russia. There are speculations that such a move from Russia is a warning to bigger sites to be on their guard.