Policies

Like, share, convict: Russian authorities target social media users

March 13, 2016

It was a throwaway comment, forgotten almost the minute it was written. Then again, Viktor Krasnov could hardly have predicted the trouble those three words —”God doesn’t exist” — would cause. He couldn’t have imagined that two VKontakte users would file a formal complaint to the authorities, claiming the comment “insulted” them; that police would show up at his apartment in the southern Russia …

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Europe’s new cold war turns digital as Vladimir Putin expands media offensive

January 31, 2017

Last week the NATO Centre of excellence in Riga unveiled the results of research into what it claims is a “preparatory information war” in Latvia but with, it emerges, much wider repercussions. One project examined 200,000 comments posted on Latvia’s three main online news portals between 29 July and 5 August 2014. It found 1.45% of those …

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Crimea still Ukrainian territory on TripAdvisor’s maps; Russian MP suggests to ban the US company

March 4, 2016

Last week Oleg Mikheyev, a member of the State Duma (the lower house of the Russian parliament), requested the Prosecutor General to inquire into TripAdvisor, whose website displays Crimea as being a Ukrainian territory. This misrepresentation could be enough to ban the US company from operating in Russia, suggests Mikheyev. “In the present time, all possible …

Crimea still Ukrainian territory on TripAdvisor’s maps; Russian MP suggests to ban the US company Read More

Russia, Finland discuss joint Arctic telecom projects

February 29, 2016

Several fields of potential cooperation in the Artic were discussed last week by Russia’s Deputy Telecom and Mass Communications Minister Rashid Ismailov and Finnish Transport and Communications Minister Anne Berner on the margins of Barcelona’s Mobile World Congress. According to a statement from the Russian ministry, the two countries may cooperate on metadata, frequency coordination and supervision …

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Top government and business executives to discuss innovation in Sofia

February 26, 2016

Tech entrepreneurs, investors and policy makers from Russia and other countries are welcome to attend the 8th edition of Webit Festival. This major European event on tech business and public policies will be held on April 18-20 in Sofia, Bulgaria. Expecting thousands of attendees from more than 60 countries, the event is the place to meet government …

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Saratov’s governor thinks his region has the ‘brains’ and refrigerator skills to manufacture the next iPhone

February 23, 2016

Valery Radayev, the governor of Saratov, has some big ideas for SEPO, the Saratov Electrounit Production Corporation. You might know SEPO for its indestructible refrigerators, which it’s been pumping out since 1939, when it was founded in the Soviet Union to show the world’s capitalist pigdogs that communism could produce consumer comforts, too. SEPO also made …

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Russian authorities to tighten control over Internet traffic “against external threats”

February 16, 2016

The Russian government is planning to tightly control Internet traffic in the country. A parliamentary bill has been drafted by the Russian communications ministry, according to daily newspaper Vedomosti, which obtained official documents relating to the matter. The ministry’s plan calls for creating a government system to monitor Internet traffic routes along communication channels. It would track DNS servers and the assignment of IP addresses. Meanwhile, …

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Russian military reveals plan for global ‘cyberwarfare non-aggression pact’

January 31, 2017

Last week a top Russian military official revealed plans for a United Nations-backed plan to ban cyberwarfare attacks in peacetime between all leading powers. “The first step in this direction will be the signing of the Electronic Non-Aggression Pact, which will be signed under the auspices of the UN,” Yury Kuznetsov, head of the Russian …

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TICKS not BRICS? Russia’s race to replace commodities with technology

February 8, 2016

In an article last week, the Financial Times wrote that the concept of the BRICS group of emerging economies was dead, arguing that Russia and Brazil’s dependence on commodities exports had led to them being usurped by tech-heavy economies Taiwan and South Korea, leading to the creation of the TICKS (Taiwan, India, China, [South] Korea and South …

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Chechen leader complains about censorship by Instagram

February 7, 2016

The head of the Chechen government, Ramzan Kadyrov, accuses Instagram of censoring his free speech. He says the social network deleted a post he directed at Russia’s political opposition. “Here is America’s vaunted freedom of speech! You can write what you want, but don’t touch America’s henchmen or friends of the State Department and Congress. …

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Putin supports introducing sales tax on foreign Internet companies

February 7, 2016

Vladimir Putin has ordered the government to develop legislative amendments that will provide “more equal working conditions” among Internet companies in Russia. The executive order is addressed to several branches of the state: the Anti-Monopoly Service, the Ministry of Economic Development, the Ministry of Finance, the Federal Tax Service, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, …

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French Tech launches in Moscow to bridge French and Russian innovation systems

March 31, 2016

French Tech, a government initiative which aims to to organize and promote French innovation globally, launched officially its Moscow branch on Monday. The opening ceremony took place in Skolkovo, the international tech hub under completion on the outskirts of Moscow, where French Tech Moscow has established itself. French economy minister Emmanuel Macron offered a brief speech …

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