No Passports Required to Use Public Wi-Fi, Moscow City Hall Says

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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – August 9, 2014) Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree Friday instructing public Wi-Fi network operators to require user identification – but only in certain spots. The decree was almost immediately greeted with outrage from many residents of Moscow, where Wi-Fi is widely available in parks, cafes, schools and on some forms of public transportation. […]

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Ban on anonymous access to public Wi-Fi irritates Russians

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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Igor Rozin, RBTH – August 11, 2014) A government decree demanding that Russians show their passports when accessing public Wi-Fi has agitated Russian society. A few hours after the decree was issued, the Moscow Mayor and the Ministry of Communications’ press offices explained that the decision did not concern all networks Public Wi-Fi […]

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Law Requiring Bloggers to Register as Mass Media Comes Into Force

File Photo of Little Girl at Computer Next to Globe

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Anna Dolgov – August 1, 2014) A law requiring popular bloggers to register as mass media took effect Friday, tightening government control over the country’s influential online voices but leaving some uncertainty as to how strict the immediate scrutiny will become. In accordance with the new law, any blog that receives more than 3,000 hits […]

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Russia Beyond the Headlines: Social media alive and well despite laws

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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Alexander Plyushchev, special to RBTH – July 15, 2014) Alexander Plyushchev is a popular blogger and one of the pioneers of Internet journalism in Russia. Russians flock to social networks even as the government tries to regulate the web A new law, which comes into effect Aug. 1, will effectively subject Russia’s most […]

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Russian Blog Post Decrying Government’s Internet Crackdown Goes Viral

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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – John Freedman – July 14, 2014) Is this an updated version of Aldous Huxley’s classic antiutopian novel, “Brave New World”? Not exactly. If you live in Russia, this will be your world by September 1, according to a blog, “A Guide Through Your Life: What the Duma Has Banned in Recent Months,” published last week […]

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For One in Three Russians, the Internet is Unknown Territory, Poll Shows

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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – July 2, 2014) About 28 percent of Russians, or almost a third of the populace, likely have never surfed the web in their lives, according to a new poll. In the poll published Monday by the independent Levada Center, 28 percent of respondents said they never went online and that they had no Internet access. […]

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Internet Giant Yandex Evades Burden of Media Status

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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – July 3, 2014) Leading Russian search engine Yandex will not have to register with the government as a media outlet, the Prosecutor General’s Office said Wednesday, setting a precedent that suggests search engines’ news aggregating sites may be safe from a wave of heightened regulation of the Internet. “Based on the results of our inspection, […]

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Test: How Does State Search Tool Sputnik Compare to Google and Yandex?

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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Matthew Bodner – June 2, 2014) On May 22, state-owned telecoms company Rostelecom launched the first version of its new search engine, Sputnik. A week later, the engine, which some analysts see as the latest move in the Kremlin’s ongoing crusade against the uncontrolled and subversive Internet, has fallen flat. On the day that Sputnik […]

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Interfax: Snowden must apply for extension if he decides to stay in Russia – head of Federal Migration Service council

Edward Snowden file photo

MOSCOW. June 2 (Interfax) – Former CIA analyst Edward Snowden will have to ask for extension of his temporary asylum if he decides to stay in Russia, Vladimir Volokh, the head of the Public Council of the Federal Migration Service, told Interfax on Monday. “He has to request an extension of his temporary stay. No additional documents are filed if […]

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Media Regulator Could Block Foreign Websites for Failing to Reveal Data

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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Anna Dolgov – May 27, 2014) Russia’s media watchdog has drafted a resolution that would allow it to block foreign websites in the country for failing to register with the Kremlin’s monitors, a news report said. The proposed government resolution, drafted by media regulator Roskomnadzor, would cover all websites that allow their users to exchange […]

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Russian Premier Medvedev Defends Facebook, Twitter

File Photo Dmitry Medvedev at Desk with Laptop Computer

(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Torrey Clark – May 17, 2014) Russians access to Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. is safe if Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has a say in the matter. The government leader rebuked a communications official for saying in an interview published yesterday that Russia has the right to fully block online social networks if they don’t uphold […]

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Moscow Times: Internet Companies Gain Voice in Government

Igor Shuvalov file photo

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Delphine d’Amora – May 8, 2014) Internet companies have found a forum to defend their interests before the government following a meeting Wednesday with First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov and an array of high-ranking officials. During the meeting, Shuvalov ordered a working group formed within the Communications and Press Ministry, which will bring together […]

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Russian Internet ‘One Step Away’ From Chinese Firewall

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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – April 29, 2014) Amid growing criticism of its increasingly tighter regulation of the Internet, Russia’s official media watchdog on Monday vowed to continue its fight in the “information war,” saying freedom of speech “does not mean everything is permitted.” The government made clear at an annual meeting of top officials of the […]

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Yandex reacts to Putin comments about foreign influence as share price falls

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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Vsevolod Pulya, RBTH – April 28, 2014) The Russian search engine was actually registered in the Netherlands and received its first investments from foreign investors. Nevertheless, it believes that this is “common practice for any internet startup.” Russian search engine Yandex has responded to comments by Russian President Vladimir Putin about foreign influences […]

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Moscow Times: Putin Says CIA Created the Internet, Cites Foreign Influence at Yandex

File Photo of Vladimir Putin Sitting at Desk

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Christopher Brennan – April 25, 2014) President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that the Internet was a CIA project and that Russia’s most popular search engine Yandex had been subject to Western influence when it started out. The president told a media forum that the Internet “emerged as a special project of the U.S. CIA and […]

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Russian Internet twitters with talk of Ukraine

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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Anna Fefelova, special to RBTH – April 21, 2014) Russian bloggers and politicians use social media to discuss the conflict in the Donbass. While Russian state television is giving one perspective on the events in Eastern Ukraine, politicians and opposition bloggers alike have been expressing different views online. Konstantin Dolgov, the Special Representative […]

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Anatole Klyosov: The original Soviet internet geek

File Photo Dmitry Medvedev at Desk with Laptop Computer

(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Dan Pototsky, RBTH – April 7, 2014) This year marks 20 years since the internet first appeared in Russia. The first Soviet internet user, the well-known Soviet-American scientist Anatole A. Klyosov, speaks about the internet in the USSR, espionage and the surreal logic of history in an exclusive interview with RBTH. Anatole A. […]

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Minister Sees End to U.S. IT Purchases

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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – March 27, 2014) U.S. spying could cost software companies said Communications and Mass Media Minister Nikolai Nikiforov, in a message attached to an Instagram shot of a recent Wall Street Journal article detailing renewed U.S interest in spying on Russia. “U.S. security services have put an end to the further use of U.S. computer software […]

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TRANSCRIPT: Press Conference with President Obama and Prime Minister Rutte of the Netherlands [excerpts re Russia]

Map of Commonwealth of Independent States, European Portion

(The White House – Office of the Press Secretary – For Immediate Release – March 25, 2014) Gemeentemuseum Den Haag The Hague, The Netherlands Q    Thank you, Mr. President.  You’ve been criticized during this dispute with Russia as not understanding President Putin’s motivations.  As recently as last month, you and others in your administration said you thought Putin was reflecting […]

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Ukraine’s Social Media Revolution Years in the Making

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(Voice of America – voanews.com – Cecily Hilleary – March 14, 2014) When a Ukrainian women’s plea for freedom went viral in February and received nearly eight million views, it demonstrated the power of social media in spreading the message of Ukraine’s political reform. Yulia Marushevska’s emotional YouTube plea spurred thousands of Ukrainians into the streets, but analysts say it […]

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Three Statistics with Long Shadows for Russia

File Photo of Crowd of Russians with One Waving Russian Flag

(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, February 18, 2014) Three newly released statistics – one on births in Kazakhstan, a second on how Russians understand events in Ukraine, and a third on where websites of the .ru domain are hosted – say more about where the Russian Federation is heading than do more prominent declarations of Moscow political […]

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NEWSLINK: Russians use ‘love’ emoticon on Facebook more than any other

Red Valentine's Heart

[“Russians use ‘love’ emoticon on Facebook more than any other” – San Francisco Business Times – Steven E.F. Brown- February 13, 2014 – bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/2014/02/russians-love-emoticon-facebook-berkeley.html?page=all] The San Francisco Business Times reports that the top emoticon for Russian facebook users is the love icon.  Yet researchers at Cal-Berkeley and Cambridge provide a mixed assessment of what that means: Russians choose an emoticon […]

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Moscow Tightens Controls over Internet, But Those Affected Directed to Workarounds

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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, February 4, 2014) The Russian authorities are putting ever more pressure on the Internet in the hopes of imposing Kremlin control on the last relatively free segment of the Russian media, but their efforts are being countered by those most affected who are offering hat they describe as “very easy” workarounds so […]

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Legal Online Video Has Inroads in Russia

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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Eradzh Nidoev – January 29, 2014) While online video streaming in the U.S. has shown that the Internet can be effectively monetized by film and television, the fear of piracy in Russia has limited the spread of such services here. Only now, a few companies are taking the plunge and offering online streaming services, and […]

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The Artistic Community Responds to Events in Kiev

Maidan Square file photo

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – John Freedman – January 27, 2014) When the going gets tough, as we have seen repeatedly in recent years, the tough take to Facebook. At least that’s what they do in this part of the world. So it has been with the events in Kiev – call them protests or call them a revolution in […]

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Russia Beyond the Headlines: Russian teenager wrongly labelled as author of Kaptoxa malware

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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – By Dan Pototsky, RBTH  – January 24, 2014) Experts at the company Group-IB have officially disproved reports identifying Sergey Tarasov, purportedly 17 and a resident of St. Petersburg, as the author of the malicious software known as Kaptoxa, which was used in one of the largest successful attacks on U.S. Internet stores. “Over […]

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Proposed reforms will not stop pervasive NSA snooping

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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Gevorg Mirzayan, special to RBTH – January 23, 2014) Russian experts say Obama’s initiatives to reform the U.S. surveillance do not go far enough. President Barack Obama has announced reforms at the National Security Agency. He unveiled several changes, which he believes will redress the balance between civil liberties and the need to […]

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Print edition of The Moscow News shut down

Kremlin and Saint Basil's

(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Natalia Antonova – January 23, 2014) Dear readers, the print edition of The Moscow News has been shut down by order of the management. The January 23 issue, which came out today as part of Moskovskiye Novosti, was our last print publication until further notice. Our website remains active, and we will continue bringing you […]

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U.S. Congressman Alleges Snowden May Have Worked With FSB

Edward Snowden file photo

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Anna Dolgov – January 20, 2014) The U.S. House of Representatives and Senate intelligence committees will investigate suspicions that intelligence leaker Edward Snowden might have already been in touch with Russian security services while working as a defense contractor on U.S. soil, the committees’ leaders said. Representative Mike Rogers, a Republican from Michigan and head […]

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Duma considers expanding security agencies’ surveillance tactics on the web

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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Marina Obrazkova, RBTH – January 17, 2014) Russian MPs want to step up counterterrorism measures to include more control over what the Internet. The powers of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) will be expanded, electronic payments in the Russian segment of the Internet will come under stricter regulations and, overall, state control […]

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Putin Gets Into the ‘Selfie’ Game

Kremlin and Moscow Environs Aerial View

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – January 13, 2014) Though he may lack the Twitter following of his tech-obsessed Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, President Vladimir Putin was social media star over the weekend, as a “selfie” photo of the president and a young boy made the rounds on the Internet. [https://twitter.com/koffboy/status/422411344927653888] The picture of an unidentified boy and Putin was published […]

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RIA Novosti: One in Three Russian Towns & Villages Have No Internet – Study

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MOSCOW, January 10 (RIA Novosti) ­ People living in more than a third of Russia’s small towns and villages have no access to the Internet, a new government study shows. Despite the boom in Internet use in Russia, some 6,700 localities have no opportunity to get online, the Ministry of Communications and Mass Media said on its website. The figure […]

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CIA Cuts Off Public Access to Its Translated News Reports

File Photo of CIA Seal on Floor

(Secrecy News – blogs.fas.org/secrecy – Steven Aftergood – January 8, 2014) Beginning in 1974, the U.S. intelligence community provided the public with a broad selection of foreign news reports, updated daily.  These were collected and translated by the Central Intelligence Agency’s Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS), which was reconstituted in 2004 as the Open Source Center (OSC). But the CIA […]

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Orgs Ask DNI to Preserve Access to World News Connection

DNI Seal and Smaller Seals of Agencies Related to DNI

(Secrecy News – blogs.fas.org/secrecy – Steven Aftergood – December 23, 2013) More than a dozen professional societies and public interest groups wrote to the Director of National Intelligence last week to ask him to preserve public access to foreign news reports gathered, translated and published by the Open Source Center and marketed to subscribers through the NTIS World News Connection. […]

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NEWSLINK: Putin dissolves state news agency, tightens grip on Russia media

File Photo of Little Russian Girl at Laptop Next to Globe

[Putin dissolves state news agency, tightens grip on Russia media – Reuters – Timothy Heritage – December 9 – http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/09/us-russia-media-idUSBRE9B80I120131209] Reuters covers Russia President Vladimir Putin’s decision to dissolve RIA Novosti and absorb its operations into new entity called Rossiya Segodnya, with a mission of promoting Russia abroad: President Vladimir Putin tightened his control over Russia’s media on Monday by […]

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Interfax: Moscow backs idea of Internet’s international regulation – Lavrov

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KYIV. Dec 5 (Interfax) – Moscow supports the idea of the Internet’s international regulation, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. “I think our organization should think about its role in ensuring the people’s rights in cyberspace,” Lavrov said at a ministerial session of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in Kyiv on Thursday. “This concerns the problem […]

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Supercomputing Gap Seen as Threat to Economy

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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Guennadi Moukine – November 28, 2013) PERESLAVL-ZALESSKY, Yaroslavl Region ­ Russia is lagging five and a half years behind the U.S. in supercomputing technology and closing the gap is essential for the competitiveness of the Russian economy, an Academy of Sciences computing expert said. Supercomputers, which are ranked according to their speed of calculation measured […]

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Microsoft’s top ad man assesses Russia’s digital prospects

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(Moscow News – moscownews.com – Maria Stambler – November 28, 2013) Sharing, liking, posting, clicking, browsing – these actions are ubiquitous and have firmly cemented themselves into our existence with the rise of YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. New forms of communication emerge every day, and there is fairly little doubt that our lives are affected by the way we use […]

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Sochi Olympics will be Instagram-friendly

File Photo of Sochi Olympics Banner Near Highway in Warm Weather with Vehicle and Cyclicsts Nearby

(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Alexey Mosko, RBTH – November 20, 2013) Contrary to previous media reports, journalists at the Sochi Games will be allowed to use mobile phones to photograph sportspeople and spectators during the Olympics. Journalists at the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi will be able to take photographs and shoot videos for their own personal […]

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New Russian media trend: Journalism without intermediaries

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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Dmitriy Romendik, RBTH – November 12, 2013) A growing number of Russian journalists are writing on the Internet to reach their readers directly, without intermediaries in the shape of investors, publishers or editors. While this mode of professional existence has not generated large financial dividends so far, it has given them editorial independence. […]

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Interfax: Public Chamber wants certain websites to be checked for xenophobic propaganda

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MOSCOW. Nov 11 (Interfax) – Secretary of the Russian Public Chamber Yevgeny Velikhov has asked head of the federal communications, information technology and mass media oversight service Roskomnadzor Alexander Zharov to check several websites suspected of engaging in the propaganda of xenophobia and racial hatred. The websites in question are “Sputnik i Pogrom” and “Pravoviye Novosti”, according to Velikhov’ letter […]

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Interfax: Lavrov believes most world leaders knew they were tapped by U.S. special services

Sergei Lavrov file photo

ATHENS. Oct 30 (Interfax) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov believes most of the key world political leaders were aware of being tapped by U.S. special services. “I even feel somewhat bored to comment on this. In fact, I am sure that everyone knew everything or at least had such suspicions. And all this fuss is being made now just […]

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FSB wants to record Internet communications

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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Yaroslava Kiryukhina, RBTH – October 23, 2013) Just several months after granting temporary asylum to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, Russia prepares to implement electronic surveillance that looks similar to the infamous PRISM. But is it actually the same? Russia’s Communications Ministry has drafted an order that would require Internet providers to install monitoring […]

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Snowden – the only Solzhenitsyn we deserve

Edward Snowden file photo

(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Dmitry Babich, special to RBTH – October 21, 2013) Dmitry Babich is a columnist for Voice of Russia radio. Is the former NSA analyst a modern-day dissident? There are many interesting similarities between Edward Snowden and the famous Russian dissident writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008). The most recent example of these is the interview […]

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Russian MPs Downplay New Internet Surveillance Plans, Activist Alarmed

File Photo of Partial FSB Headquarters Building Facade

(RIA Novosti – October 21, 2013) Russian State Duma MPs have downplayed the significance of the Communications Ministry’s draft decree requiring internet service providers to install equipment for storing internet traffic and sharing it with the Federal Security Service (FSB), Russian news agencies reported on 21 October. The Russian heavyweight liberal newspaper Kommersant reported earlier on the same day that […]

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Russian Telecoms Giant Slams New Surveillance Powers – Paper

Stylized Artist's Depiction of Shadowy Figures in Dark Coats and Dark Hats, One Carrying a Briefcase

(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, October 21, 2013) A Russian telecommunications giant has slammed government plans to give security services complete access to all Internet traffic by the middle of 2014, calling them unconstitutional, Kommersant newspaper reported Monday. The daily cited a letter submitted by mobile operator Vimpelcom to the Press and Communications Ministry as saying the proposed legislation violated fundamental […]

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Special services not able to access Internet traffic without court ruling – Communications Ministry

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(Interfax – MOSCOW, October 21, 2013) The Communications Ministry’s draft decree on the special services’ access to Internet traffic is not a novelty and does not contradict Russian legislation,” the ministry press service told Interfax on Monday. “This decree is not new. Besides, it doesn’t regulate the procedure governing the provision of Internet users’ data to the special services,” the […]

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Russian internet use still rising steadily – researchers

File Photo of Little Russian Girl at Laptop Next to Globe

(Interfax – October 20, 2013) The proportion of Russia’s adult population that accesses the internet on a daily basis is continuing to grow steadily, with almost half now going online at least once a day, according to research from one of the country’s leading polling organizations. In remarks reported by the privately-owned Interfax agency on 17 October, the head of […]

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Internet audience in Russia reaches 66 million – Public Opinion Foundation

(Interfax – MOSCOW, October 17, 2013) The monthly Internet audience in Russia reached 66.1 million people aged 18 or older, or, 57% of the country’s population in fall 2013, Svetlana Borisova, the head of the FOM-RUNET project of the Public Opinion Foundation, told a conference RIW (Russian Internet Week) 2013. “The average daily audience of the Russian segment of the […]

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Three Disturbing New Russian Legal Initiatives

Kremlin and St. Basil's

(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, October 16, 2013) The Kremlin’s moves against the principles of the Russian Constitution and basic human rights are currently coming at such a rapid pace that it is difficult to keep up with its assault on what remains of democracy in that country. This week alone featured three initiatives that are particularly […]

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