Federal Security Service (FSB) senior official Alexander Andreyechkin complained last Friday during a government meeting that “the uncontrollable use of Gmail, Hotmail, and Skype [in particular] could lead to a major threat to Russia’s security.”
FSB is “more and more concerned about these services using foreign-made cryptographic means” that Russia’s security services cannot access, he added.
Andreyechkin is said to have explicitly proposed a ban on Skype, Gmail, and Hotmail during the closed-door part of the meeting, reported news agency RIA Novosti.
“The encryption systems used by such services as Gmail make it difficult for law-enforcing bodies to conduct their operations,” explained Deputy Communications and Mass Media Minister Ilya Massukh.
Massukh affirmed, however, that his ministry would not favor any ban: “Nothing should be forbidden to citizens, especially on the Internet.” he told the news agency.
While a commission was appointed to work out propositions for regulating the use of encryption methods on public networks, Andreyechkin’s statement provoked a series of colliding reactions.
According to a source close to President Medvedev who wished to remain anonymous, Andreyechkin “expressed his personal opinion. He went beyond his authority with hasty conclusions about these popular online services,” reported RIA Novosti. “The state policy regarding Internet technologies is not defined by intelligence agencies,” said the source, who also reaffirmed that FSB’s primary task is “to ensure information security, not to propose prohibition measures.”
The Kremlin’s comment was immediately rejected by Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. “FSB representatives do not express personal points of view,” Peskov declared to Russian online daily Gazeta.ru. Andreyechkin’s statement “naturally reflected the FSB’s position, which is carefully argued.”
Some observers interpreted these conflicting statements as yet another sign of a rift between President Medvedev, who often appears to favor more expansive civil liberties, and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who is said to be more inclined to restrictive policies.
FSB itself backed away the following day. The Service attested to RIA Novosti on April 9 that it has neither proposed nor planned any measure to restrain the use of Skype or Gmail in Russia. “On the contrary, the development of modern technologies is a natural process that should be encouraged.”
Google, the owner of Gmail, affirmed that it “provides the necessary information in accordance with agreements on mutual legal assistance” when foreign law enforcement bodies make such demands, reported RIA Novosti. But company spokeswoman Alla Zabrovskaya also said that the FSB has never filed a request for information about users, noted The Moscow Times.
Google’s Transparency tool indicates that the company has received to date “fewer than 10 requests” from Russian government agencies to remove content from Google’s services—none of which were complied with—and not a single request to provide information about Google users. By comparison, Google has received 128 removal requests and 4,287 information requests from U.S. authorities.
