Putin supports introducing sales tax on foreign Internet companies

Vladimir Putin has ordered the government to develop legislative amendments that will provide “more equal working conditions” among Internet companies in Russia. The executive order is addressed to several branches of the state: the Anti-Monopoly Service, the Ministry of Economic Development, the Ministry of Finance, the Federal Tax Service, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, and German Klimenko, Putin’s new Internet advisor.

“Ensuring equal working conditions,” the newspaper Vedomosti notes, could involve the introduction of a new tax on all sales conducted in Russia by foreign companies (such as Google and Apple).

Putin’s executive order comes after a forum last December on the Internet economy, where the president met with Russian entrepreneurs.