Legal

Can Spotify and new local services drive Russian music fans to the right side of the law?

With a decades-long history of being one of the countries where online music has been mostly pirated, Russia is now seeing the emergence of music services that offer users a legal way to stream tracks. Spotify is on its way to the country, and local services are gearing up towards acquiring a bigger audience with new features and tailor-made offers …

Can Spotify and new local services drive Russian music fans to the right side of the law? Read More

Telecom regulator Roskomnadzor wants Google, Facebook and Twitter to register

The Russian Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Telecom, Information Technologies and Mass Communications (Roskomnadzor) has informed Facebook, Gmail and Twitter that they must register in Russia as “organizers of distribution of information,” according to Russian legislation. “We informed them and one way or another we will force them to follow the law,” …

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Mail.ru Group takes over Vkontakte: The happy end of a 3-year financial, legal and political saga

Yesterday, Mail.ru Group, the LSE-listed Russian Internet giant, announced it now fully controls Vkontakte (VK.com), the leading Russian language social network with over 250 million registered accounts and 60 million daily users. The group, which already owned 52% of the company, bought the remaining 48% stake from UCP, the Russian investment fund that had become a …

Mail.ru Group takes over Vkontakte: The happy end of a 3-year financial, legal and political saga Read More

Pavel Durov has cloned Telegram

Pavel Durov seems to be creating a competitor of his own instant messenger, Telegram, if judging by a new version – christened Telegram HD – which appeared in the Apple AppStore on July 21.  The app is registered to the company Telegram Messenger LLP and all links to the Telegram app for iPhone on the messenger’s official website lead …

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Interior ministry seeks ways to track Tor user data

Russia’s Interior Ministry is offering nearly 4 million rubles ($114,000) for research on ways to get data on users of the anonymous web surfing network Tor. The announcement, posted on the government’s official state procurement website earlier this month, comes amid a massive upsurge in Russian users of Tor, which allows Internet users to anonymously visit websites blocked in their country.

First charge recorded in a non-FSB-sanctioned foreign smartphone purchase

Russia has witnessed its first case brought by the federal customs service against a local resident for trying to order a smartphone from a foreign online store. Eugene Yarutkin, a resident of Dimitrovgrad (Ulyanovsk region), was given the dubious honor when he ordered a Motorola Moto G with a data encryption feature from a German …

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New personal data storage rules to affect both foreign and domestic players – but still no “Chinese wall” surrounding Russia

Some foreign players panicked last week when they learned about the new rules adopted by the Russian parliament regarding the collection and storage of personal data – which will be allowed only on Russian territory starting from Sept. 2016. Concerns were fuelled by inflated media reports, including a Google Translate-based article that appeared on an …

New personal data storage rules to affect both foreign and domestic players – but still no “Chinese wall” surrounding Russia Read More

Russian cross-border e-commerce platform Shopfans.ru to bypass new customs rules via Kazakhstan

Earlier this week Shopfans.ru, a Russia-focused mail-forwarder and marketplace for US retailers, informed its consumers about a new delivery option to Russia through Kazakhstan, Russian newspaper RBK Daily reported. With both countries members of a customs union, this transit service allows buyers to circumvent the 150-euro tax-free limit  on purchases from foreign retailers, which the …

Russian cross-border e-commerce platform Shopfans.ru to bypass new customs rules via Kazakhstan Read More

Visa and MasterCard to participate in Russia’s new national payment system

Visa and MasterCard will continue to operate in Russia, the companies’ representatives told journalists last week at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, following a meeting with Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov and Minister of Finance Anton Siluanov. Visa and MasterCard executives had expressed concern about the consequences of new rules recently adopted by …

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Russian hackers get jail time for online banking thefts

After an investigation initiated by the security service of Sberbank, Russia’s national savings bank, the activities of an organized criminal group of hackers that specialize in stealing money from the bank accounts of companies have been suppressed. This was achieved thanks to joint efforts by the Bureau of Special Technical Measures (BSTM) and the Russian FSB Information …

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