Legal

Russia threatens to block YouTube and Facebook for “discriminating content” of official media

December 30, 2020

On December 25, the Federation Council, Russia’s upper house of parliament, approved a bill against “censorship” of Russian media and other illegitimate restrictions to content distribution on the Internet.  The new law targets Internet resources, including foreign ones, that restrict “distribution of socially significant information in the territory of the Russian Federation on the grounds of nationality, language, origin, property and …

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Sber to launch international AI research institute in Russia

November 5, 2021

Last week Sber, Russia’s financial and tech giant (previously known as Sberbank) announced plans to open an international institute for artificial intelligence in Russia as early January 2021.  Sber’s head Herman Gref defined the main mission of the institute as “to provide an interdisciplinary approach to research” in the field of AI.   At the …

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Proposed EU ‘Data Governance Act’ will make data exchanges with Russia even more difficult, warn experts

December 2, 2020

As part of the European strategy for data, the European Commission proposes a set of measures to “foster the availability of data.” A part of them, published on November 25, focus on “increasing trust in data intermediaries and strengthening data-sharing mechanisms across the EU.”  These measures are aligned with the consumer protection requirements under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) …

Proposed EU ‘Data Governance Act’ will make data exchanges with Russia even more difficult, warn experts Read More

Facebook pays $53,000 fine for breaching Russian personal data storage law

December 1, 2020

Facebook has paid a 4 million ruble ($53,000) fine, which was levied in February, for violating Russia’s personal data storage law. Proceedings against the company have been dropped, Russian state-run news agencies reported — without specifying whether or not Facebook now complies with the law. Over the past years the regulator Roskomnadzor requested Facebook and Twitter several …

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Michael Calvey freed from house arrest weeks after settlement of civil claims

November 13, 2020

American investor Michael Calvey and six other defendants in the Baring Vostok case have been released from house arrest, Russia’s Supreme Court ruled Thursday. This is the latest breakthrough in one of the most high-profile cases in the Putin era involving foreign businessmen. Their private equity fund, Baring Vostok, has been an investor in some of Russia’s …

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Banki.ru founders sell their stake to settle conflict with US investor

November 24, 2020

An investor consortium led by Russian private equity firms Elbrus Capital and Winter Capital (the latter has Russian billionaire Vladimir Potanin among its limited partners) has acquired 60% of Banki.ru, a leading bank and insurance marketplace. The investors are buying all the shares of company founders Philipp and Kirill Ilyin-Adaev and Elena Ishcheeva for an undisclosed amount. Russia Partners, an …

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Baring Vostok civil case settled for $32 million — but Michael Calvey still under house arrest in fragile health

October 30, 2020

US businessman Michael Calvey and his fund Baring Vostok have reached a deal with former Russian partners in a corporate dispute over their joint investment Vostochny Bank. “The shareholders of Vostochny Bank have settled their corporate dispute” and “signed an agreement to the benefit of the Bank, its clients, depositors and creditors,” the two sides said in …

Baring Vostok civil case settled for $32 million — but Michael Calvey still under house arrest in fragile health Read More

Yandex releases first-ever transparency report on government requests for user data

October 27, 2020

For the first time ever, the Internet services giant Yandex has released statistics on the number of requests for user information it has received from Russian government agencies. In the first half of 2020, branches of the government sent the company more than 15,000 requests and Yandex fulfilled 84 percent of them. According to Russian …

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Crypto exchange Binance blacklisted in Russia

October 15, 2020

Russia’s Internet and telecom regulator Roskomnadzor has added Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, to the list of blacklisted websites in the country. The exchange was blacklisted on June 2, 2020, but Binance became aware of this only on September 24th, after receiving communication from Roskomnadzor. Binance said on its Russian Telegram channel it was …

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Russian government wants to ban latest encryption technologies

September 22, 2020

Russia’s Ministry of Digital Development, Communications, and Mass Media wants to ban websites from using the latest encryption technologies, to make it easier for Russia’s Internet and telecom regulator, Roskomnadzor, to block access to Russian Internet resources containing prohibited content. Experts point out that a number of large Internet companies, including the Russian Internet giant …

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Russia blocks cryptocurrency websites ahead of regulation

August 30, 2020

Roskomnadzor, the Russian Internet and telecom regulator, has blocked popular Russian cryptocurrency exchange monitoring website Bestchange.ru for the third time. Bestchange.ru explained that it had been investigating how to unblock its domain but testing may take some time. This website, launched in 2007, is not restricted to just cryptocurrency. It helps users find the best offers online, including the …

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What links Russia to Germany’s Wirecard scandal

August 25, 2020

One of the main figures in the collapse of German payment firm Wirecard, chief operating officer Jan Marsalek, is reportedly hiding somewhere near Moscow. Russian online publication The Bell looked at Wirecard’s connections with Russia, and why Marsalek visited the country over 60 times in a decade. The reason for Marsalek’s trips was a search for banks …

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