Rejecting an appeal from the US company, a Moscow municipal court confirmed today an earlier court decision to consider LinkedIn as violating the Russian legislation on personal data storage. The news has just been reported by the Russian news agency Interfax. As a consequence, the telecom regulator Roskomnadzor — which had initiated the legal procedure against LinkedIn — will require operators …
Roskomnadzor, the Russian telecom and Internet regulator, has initiated a legal procedure to block access to LinkedIn from Russia, should the US site not comply with the new legislation on personal data storage. This legislation, which came into force in September 2015, requires to store Russian citizens’ personal data only in databases located on Russia territory (see white paper by EWDN and EY). Many …
Russia urges LinkedIn to comply with personal data legislation Read More
Earlier this month Alexei Moiseev, the Deputy Finance Minister of the Russian Federation, stated that the spread of bitcoin in Russia does not represent a threat the country’s financial ecosystem, at its current rate of adoption. As such, the plan to ban the cryptocurrency is now paused. Moiseev had primarily spearheaded the Russian Finance Ministry’s …
The Russian bitcoin ban plan is on indefinite hold Read More
Russian companies have begun searching for ways to fully decipher intercepted messages on popular platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, the Kommersant newspaper reported Tuesday. Decryption of messages is a key provision of the recently-passed anti-terror law authored by conservative lawmaker, Irina Yarovaya. As part of the wide-ranging law, all companies providing online communication are …
Russia begins search for decryption of online messengers Read More
Russian industry lobbies and lawmakers are preparing changes to the legislation on online video content. According to an advanced draft bill analyzed by Kommersant, the owners of independent online streaming companies with over 100,000 daily views will be required to reduce the share of foreign capital to 20% or less by March 1, 2017. A …
Russia considers restrictions to foreign capital ownership of online video companies Read More
State censors in Russia cut off access yesterday to the world’s biggest pornography website, Pornhub. The website appeared on the list of websites banned by the government agency Roskomnadzor on Tuesday, Sept. 13. A Russian court will rule whether the ban will remain in place at a later date. A Russian Internet without the Web’s …
Russian telecom regulator blocks access to Pornhub Read More
Last week, the Industry and Trade Ministry suggested to entrust the National Informatics Center (NIC), a subsidiary of the state-owned corporation Rostec, with implementing the requirements of the new “anti-terrorist” legislation related to the storage of phone and Internet communications. Dubbed “Big Brother law,” this legislation was adopted by the Russian parliament and signed by …
Rostec suggests to use pension fund to finance implementation of ‘Big Brother law’ Read More
Russia’s new “anti-terrorist” legislation adopted last month could cost mobile operators up to 10 trillion rubles (approximately $154 billion at the current exchange rate), RBC reported today. The online business publication cited an estimate from Denis Neshtun, General Manager of data storage company RCNTEC. The cost to mobile networks could be significantly reduced if the law’s requirements were softened and/or if the price of the required …
Russian authorities have gone back on their idea to penalize whoever is caught in bitcoin operations in the country, says a report by Russian news agency Interfax. Though Interfax referenced unnamed sources close to the Russian government’s financial departments, it suggested that representatives from the country’s Ministry of Finance, central bank, and other government bureaus are …
Last week Private Internet Access (PIA), a VPN provider based in California, announced that it was suspending all operations in Russia following server seizure by the Russian authorities and due to an ever-more restrictive legal environment. Under a controversial “anti-terrorist” legislation signed by President Putin in early July, Internet and telecom players will soon be required to store the content and the …
Less than one year after the introduction of new restrictions on personal data collection, use and storage, and in parallel to recently adopted ‘anti-terrorist’ measures, Russian officials are considering yet additional moves to tighten state control over users’ digital data. Speaking last month at the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum, Alexander Zharov, who heads Russia’s telecom and …
Russia considers creating a “national Big Data operator” Read More
Yesterday Oleg Fomichev, Russia’s Deputy Minister for Economic Development, stated that the data storage infrastructure needed to implement Russia’s new “anti-terrorist” legislation does not exist currently. “This kind of equipment doesn’t exist anywhere in the world in such a quantity at the moment,” the Interfax news agency quoted his as saying, as reported by The Moscow Times. It …
