The Russian Communications Ministry has inspired draft amendments to the telecom legislation, aiming to limit foreign ownership over Internet exchange points to 20%.
According to these amendments, domestic ISPs would not be allowed to connect to exchange points that belong to other states, foreign companies or organizations, as well as foreign citizens or Russian nationals with dual citizenship.
Exchange points are defined as a technology through which Internet traffic is exchanged through networks – which means the draft law would also apply to telecom operators, notes the business daily Vedomosti.
These include MegaFon, which is 25% owned by the Swedish company Telia Company, and VimpelCom (Beeline), which is fully owned by Dutch Veon.
The ministry believes that the Russian Internet infrastructure needs to be protected from “possible foreign interference,” and that Internet traffic in Russia must be controlled more tightly.
As part of the plan, a state registry for all the legally permitted exchange points will be created, and all routing information between ISPs and Russia’s IP-address database will be monitored.
According to online publication TJournal, he country’s biggest exchange point is the Moscow Internet Exchange (MSK-IX), which was acquired by Rostelecom in 2015.
The 20% foreign ownership restriction already applies to Russian media under a legislation adopted 2014.
This story combines reports from Meduza and The Moscow Times.
