MOSCOW: Russia threatened Tuesday to block the website of the BBC’s Russian Service because it reported an activist’s public appeal to get people to attend a rally mocking Moscow’s policy in Ukraine.

The BBC last week ran an interview with Artyom Loskutov — an artist who has developed a reputation for performances that poke fun at the Kremlin — promoting a demonstration in favor of giving Siberia more rights within Russia.

The idea had been making the rounds in opposition circles for weeks because it offered a seemingly legal way to mock Moscow’s call for decentralization in Ukraine to support ethnic Russians there while keeping tight control at home.

Russian authorities under President Vladimir Putin often ban anti-Kremlin rallies and arrest or fine their organizers.

The Kremlin wants Ukraine transformed into a federation in which Russian-speaking regions in the industrial east have broader rights and are able to establish their own trade and diplomatic relations with Moscow.

Ukraine’s new pro-Western leaders have rejected the idea and accuse Putin of seeking to strip Kiev of direct control over the volatile region.