The website of Russian state news agency Sputnik has been blocked in Turkey, according to its Turkish editor-in-chief.

“There is no access to sputniknews.com and sub-domains from Turkey. We’ve sent a letter to the regulatory agency asking for the reasons. We were not expecting a ban at all,” Mahir Boztepe told Reuters.

No one was available for comment at Turkey’s telecoms and internet regulatory agency.

Moreover, Sputnik’s top editor, Margarita Simonyan, said in a statement that the blocking is considered “a further act of harsh censorship” in Turkey adding that access to the site had been blocked late on Thursday, hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin made comments criticizing “some political leaders” in Turkey.