Russian and international media have been abuzz in recent days over a new round of website blockings by the Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Telecom, Information Technologies and Mass Communications (Roskomnadzor). This comes on the heels of changes in the mediascape which have been perceived as setbacks to the liberal media in the …
Russian authorities tighten screws on online media Read More
Last week saw the international turmoil around Ukraine and Crimea affect Russia’s banking system, as the bank card operations of several US-sanctioned Russian banks were blocked by Visa and Mastercard. Seven Russian banks were involved in the suspension, reported Russia Today, citing Timur Batyrev, head of the national payment system department at the Central Bank …
Rusnano, Russia’s nanotech giant, Tomsk-based Micran, a major electronics manufacturer, and Finland’s Nokia Solutions and Networks (NSN) are shutting down Wireless Technology Center (WTC), their joint LTE base station facility in Tomsk. Russian media have offered the lack of legal endorsement by national regulators as an explanation for the move. A year ago WTC equipment …
Russo-Finnish consortium halts Siberian LTE equipment manufacturing Read More
Russia’s Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Telecom, Information Technologies and Mass Communications (Roskomnadzor) announced yesterday that it has blocked access to 13 virtual communities of Ukrainian organizations on Vkontakte.ru (also known as VK.com), the leading Russian-language social network. “These communities promoted the activity of Ukrainian nationalist groups, including open calls for the …
Telecom regulator blocks access to “terrorist” pro-Maidan social media content Read More
More than 1,800 instances of the government-led abuse of Russian Internet users’ rights for unrestricted access to web-based information last year were brought to light in a muckraking report issued last week by a Russian civil rights group. Agora, an interregional association of Russian civil rights NGOs set up in 2005 to bring together lawyers …
Civil activists expose violations of Internet freedom across Russia Read More
On Jan. 29, the Central Bank of Russia issued an official warning stating that all Bitcoin transactions will be considered potentially suspicious and added that use of Bitcoins in Russia is illegal. The currency is already banned in China, and the Financial Supervisory Authority of Denmark has also issues a statement warning against its use. …
Roskomnadzor, Russia’s Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media, has judged it impossible at this stage to block access to Looo.ch, a website that offers a bilingual “Illustrated Textbook on Homosexuality for Kids” – a satire on homophobia in Russia and Ukraine. “If a boy with a boy is OK, then …
Regulator fails to ban site offering satirical pro-gay “textbook for kids” Read More
When I moved to Russia, I was astonished by the pervasiveness of Internet piracy. Movies, music, software, books — everything was at my fingertips, free of charge and in the language of my choice. When my Russian friends learned that I pay for a Netflix account, they burst out laughing. Why, they asked, would I pay for something that is available for free? During my time in Russia, …
A Russian-language website, Zakazat-killera.com (“Hire a Killer”), is advertising services ranging from “physical elimination” to intimidation by taking targets for a “chat” in the woods. The site’s instigators present themselves as “an organization of kind, sincere, responsive people who can come to your aid if you need to take someone out into the woods and there nicely ‘tell him off’ or …
Russian-language hitman services website offers “comprehensive beating” for $3,000 Read More
Keeping with their prior attempts to keep Westerners as far away as possible from Russians’ Internet activity, Russian secret service agents have recently advised regional government officials across Russia to use domestic webmail services and stay away from overseas ones, such as Google’s Gmail. The recommendation, still off the record, came earlier this month from …
Rosalkogol, a government agency that oversees the sale of alcohol in Russia, is seeking permission to be able to blacklist Internet sites that sell alcoholic beverages online, which is in violation of current Russian legislation. If the Russian Cabinet approves the move, the regulator will have the power to engage Roskomnadzor, another federal agency that keeps …
In a bid to decisively address the current lack of skilled IT professionals in the country, the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications is drafting amendments to Russia’s existing law on the legal status of foreign workers. Based on these amendments, Russia intends to attract “a few hundred thousand” IT-savvy migrants by 2020. The Ministry …
Proposed legislation to encourage influx of foreign IT specialists to Russia Read More
