Policies

Russian companies fight for secure government messenger contract

October 18, 2016

Earlier this year, the Kremlin tasked the Internet Initiatives Development Fund (IIDF, or FRII in Russian) to develop develop a new secure messaging service for government. Concerned that foreign governments could access secret Russian information shared via Western apps such as WhatsApp and Viber, officials expressed concerns that Russia’s security agencies were unable to crack encryption  if …

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Russia reverses plan to penalize bitcoin use

October 3, 2016

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 …

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Is Russia meddling in the US presidential election?

July 26, 2016

The Russian government has been accused of orchestrating a hack that leaked some 20,000 U.S. Democratic National Committee (DNC) emails, after which the DNC Chairwoman resigned. The Hillary Clinton campaign chairman, Robby Mook, told reporters Sunday that “some experts” are saying that “this was done by the Russians for the purpose of helping Donald Trump.” …

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Why Russian police targets people on Vkontakte rather than on Facebook

July 16, 2016

According to the human rights group “Sova,” which monitors the enforcement of anti-extremism legislation in Russia, 119 people were convicted last year of criminal activity for posting and reposting content on Vkontakte, Russia’s leading social network. For comparison: in 2015, police went after only three users of Odnoklassniki (another Russian social network) and just a …

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Equipment to implement new ‘Big Brother’ law doesn’t exist, but Russia can produce it, according to Russian officials

February 28, 2017

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 …

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Putin signs ‘Big Brother law,’ asks government to “minimize implementation risks”

February 28, 2017

Today Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the controversial “anti-terrorist” legislation adopted by the lower and upper houses of parliament in late June, despite the flurry of criticism coming from opposition-mided circles and the serious concerns expressed by Russian telecom and Internet companies. As reported earlier by East-West Digital News, the new legislation — which Edward Snowden has called …

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Russian parliament passes “Big Brother law,” Internet and telecom industry expects hard times

February 20, 2017

In late June, the Russian parliament approved controversial amendments to Russia’s anti-terrorist legislation. Drafted by lawmakers Irina Yarovaya and Viktor Ozerov, the new legislation may have deep consequences for people living and using digital networks in Russia. The amendments are yet to be signed by President Putin [which he did on July 7 update]. A substantial part of the …

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Rostec to export Russian tech products worldwide with state support

July 3, 2016

RT-Business Development, a subsidiary of the government-backed tech corporation Rostec, is launching a new company dedicated to the advancement of Russian digital products on the international market. Aiming to virtually cover the whole world except Western countries, Rosinformexport will operate in a variety of markets – from Eastern Europe, to the Middle-East, South and South-East …

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unmanned car

Unmanned cars could become new instrument for crime, fears Russian police

April 14, 2017

Russian law-enforcement officers fear that unmanned cars may be used as instruments of crime in the near future. “In 20 years, conventional cars will be replaced by autonomous vehicles just like they once replaced horses,” said Alexander Bykov, chief of the State Road Safety Inspectorate’s Road Patrol Service department. “However, no one has studied the potential future dangers.” …

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Russia seeks to bolster tech ties with South Korea

June 23, 2016

As Russia seeks to develop and diversify international cooperation in the field of technologies, RVC, its state-owned fund of funds for innovation, announced last month that it will open a representative office in Seoul. “Among its key objectives will be to assist Russian technological companies in promoting Russian products and services on the Korean market, …

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Russian minister accuses Netflix of being part of US government plot, complains about Disney’s advertising investments

June 24, 2016

The US government is providing support to Netflix — which became available in Russia in January 2016 — as part of an effort to “get into every television” in the world, Russia’s culture minister Vladimir Medinsky stated in an interview with Rambler News Service (RNS). Netflix has developed its business with the support of the US government, …

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National bank card MIR soon accepted ubiquitously in Russia in spite of security and financial challenges

March 11, 2019

More than six months after its launch, Russia’s national bank card MIR is already supported by more than a hundred Russian banks, 13 of which actually issue the card, according to the Russian central bank’s subsidiary NSPC (or NSPK), which operates the MIR card. Card acceptance is not ubiquitous yet in Russia, however, if judging by the …

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